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«9 u« QNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK 

Copy 1 



HEARING 



BEFORE THE 



SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE 
COMMIHEE ON THE PUBLIC LANDS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SIXTY-FIFTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

ON 

^ H. R. 11935 

A BILL TO ESTABLISH THE MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK 
IN THE STATE OF MAINE 



MAY 30, 1918 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1918 



H'M^ 



^. of D. 

^^H 28 1919 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 



House of Representatives, 
Subcommittee of the Co:mmittee on the Public Lands, 

Thursday, May 30, 1918. 
The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m„ Hon. John N. Tilhnan pre- 
siding. 

There were also present Representatives McClintic and Mays. 

STATEMENTS OF HON. JOHN A. PETERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MAINE ; MR. GEORGE B. DORR, 
CUSTODIAN SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT ; AND MR. 
H. M. ALBRIGHT, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR NATIONAL PARK 
SERVICE. 

Mr. Tillman. Gentlemen, we have met this morning for the pur- 
pose of listening to the advocates of H. R. 11935, a bill introduced 
by Mr. Peters of Maine to establish the Mount Desert National Park 
in the State of Maine. Mr. Peters, the Chair will recognize you for 
whatever statement you desire to make, and I will ask you to take 
charge of the hearing and introduce whatever witnesses you desire to 
2)resent to the committee. 

Mr. Peteks. I will do so, Mr. Chairman. I want to briefly de- 
scribe the origin of this proposition. On the coast of Maine, on the 
island of Mount Desert, a tract of land of about 5,000 acres now, with 
additions of 5,000 more in contemplation and ready to be added, is 
now owned by the United States as a national monument, accepted 
by the President in 1916 under the statute of 1906 authorizing him 
to do so. This property is of extraordinary scenic and historical and 
tourist value. The details of it I will ask Mr. George B. Dorr, who 
is here and who is the custodian appointed over it by tlie Secretary 
of the Interior, and who is also, by the way, one of the selectmen of 
the town of Bar Harbor, in which a large portion of this land is sit- 
uated — to explain to you presently. This property was acquired by 
public-spirited individuals, largely at the instigation of Mr. Dorr, 
who has been devoting years of his activities to getting it together, 
for the purpose of givi.;g it to the Government to be used as a 
national park. I say national park, because that is the way people 
look at it, but it is now legally and technically a national monument. 

In the sundry civil appropriation bill of this year an appropria- 
• tion was asked' for by the Department of the Interior for the care 
and preservation of 'this property, and for the building of some 
necessary roads and paths, and for other purposes. In the course of 
the hearing before the subcommittee of the Appropriations Com- 
mittee we understood it was suggested by members of the committee, 

3 



4 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PABK. 

especiall}' the chairman, Mr. Sherley. that the name by Avhich this 
monument was known, that of Sieur de Monts, the French explorer 
who came down on that coast in 1604 and discovered the country, be 
changed. This name, of course, does not exist locally any more. It 
was suggested, as I say, that the name of the park be changed, and 
it was thought that possibly the Committee on Appropriations might 
change it in its bill. But the Park Service of the Interior De- 
partment and other interested persons thouobt it might be undesir- 
able to have that done in an appropriation bill, and with the co- 
operation and consent of the Secretary of the Interior this bill was 
introduced to change this monument from a national monument 
technically and legally to a national park, and to change the name 
from Sieur de Monts Monument to the Mount Desert Xational Park, 
which would be its common name and would identify the park, 
because Mount Desert in the eastern part of the countrj^ is a well 
known place where people resort for recreation and health from all 
over the eastern section of the country, east of the Mississippi River. 
This bill originated in that thought of the Committee on Appropria- 
tions and had for its purpose changing the name to a more common 
and identifying one, and making certain other technical changes to 
the end that the reservation should be legally a national park as 
well as practically a national park, which it is now. You gentlemen 
know better about this than I do, but there is no substantial differ- 
ence as it is now between a national monument and a national park. 
It is actually a national park; it is treated as such, used as such, and 
in order to get the benefit of a national park, it is desired to have 
it technically and legally a national park. 

Mr. Tillman. Just what significance has the term "Mount 
Desert " ? 

Mr. Peters. Mount Desert is the name of that island. 

Mr. Tillman. Wh}^ was it named that? 

Mr. DoKR. That name was given it by Champlain. in September, 
1604, when he came sailing into Frenchmans Bay and named the 
island from its bare-topped mountains. It was the first land on our 
coast that he reached. He left the colony which De Monts was es- 
tablishing at the mouth of the St. Croix River, our present national 
boundaiy, and sailed down the coast until the reached this island, 
which he landed on and named. 

Mr. McClintic. What year did you say that was in? 

Mr. Dorr. 1604. 

Mr. T1L1.MAN. I wanted to know why he selected that term. What 
significance has that name? Is it descriptive of the island or just 
what does it mean ? 

Mr. Dorr. I think these photographs will show you. He says in 
his account that the mountains were rocky and bare-topped. The 
word " desert " in French, moreover, has a different meaning from 
its English one, signifying simply " wild and solitary. '' 

Mr. Peters. As I understand it, Champlain called it the Island of 
the Desert Mountains when he sailed down and saw these tremen- 
dous tops rising from the ocean. It is the only place on the coast 
Avhere such a thing occurs, and he called it the island of the Desert 
Mountains. It is an island about 15 or 20 miles across on the coast 
of Maine, connected by a bridge with the mainland ; on it is the sum- 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

mer resort of Bar Harbor, in which town a portion of this property 
lies. This map which I show you shows the property. 

Mr. McClintic. How long is that bridge ? 

Mr. Dorr. I think about 1,800 feet. It is being rebuilt, under 
Government direction, of iron and concrete. 

Mr. Peters. There was a ford there before the bridge was built, 
so that the connection between the mainland and the island is quite 
easy. 

Mr. Albright. Mr. Peters, when you use the word "town," you 
mean the New England " town " which may cover a very large area ? 

Mr. Peters. Yes. This island has on it now four towns making 
up the area you see there indicated on the map. 

Mr. Tillman. The term town does not mean a village but a body 
of land ? 

Mr. Peters. Yes. It means the district. This town marked on 
the map Eden has now been changed by the Legislature of Maine to 
Bar Harbor; that represents all this land (indicating). A great 
portion of it is wild and uncultivated. 

Mr. McClixtic. You say there are about 5,000 acres now in the 
hands of the Government? 

Mr. Peters. Yes, sir. 

Mr. McClintic. And yoi, propose to take in about 5,000 acres 
more ? 

Mr. Peters. Yes; they hare in contemplation, and have arranged 
for, an addition of 5,000 acres more without any cost to the Gov- 
ernment. 

Mr. McClintk. AMio oamis the 5,000 additional acres at the 
present time ^ 

Mr. Dorr. It belongs to a public service corporation which was 
formed to acquire ancflf old these lands for the purpose of transferring 
them to the National Government. It is called the Hancock County 
Trustees of Public Reservations. 

Mr. Peters. President Eliot of Harvard is the president of that 
corporation? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes ; and I anj iis executive officer. 

Mr. Peters. It is a corporation formed without any pay to 
anybody and was organized for the public-spirited purpose of ac- 
quiring these and other lands through contributions made by public- 
spirited citizens. Once acquired they can not go back into private 
ownership. 

Mr. McClintic. When the 5,000 acres are added to the other 
5.000 acres how much m'>re territory will remain on that island ? 

Mr. Dorr. I should think the island might have about 75,000 or 
80,000 acres on it. 

Mr. McClintic. Is the balance of the land in that territory in- 
cluded on the island good for agricultural purposes? 

Mr. Peters. Much "of it is, but this territory which has been 
turned over is not suitable for agricultural purposes. 

Mr. McClintic. Is any portion of the balance of the island cov- 
ered by timber? 

Mr. 'Peters. Yes; there is some timber there, although the prin- 
cipal part of the remaining timber is on the part which has been 
turned over to the Government. 



6 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

Mr, Dorr. Around the mountain bases there is a good deal of very- 
interesting forest. ' 

Mr. McClintic. Is there territory now in the park, or monument^ 
or in the territory to be taken into the park, that is covered with 
timber? 

Mr. Peters. It is covered partly with timber, but not entirely. 

Mr. McClintic. There is a sufficient amount, however, to make it 
an attractive place for a park? 

Mr. Dorr. Oh, yes : more than that. 

]VIr. Peters. It is the most beautiful and most useful place for a 
public park that there is anywhere in the East. 

Mr. Tillman. Mr. Peters, I w^ould be glad if you would develop at 
some length the characteristics of the park. 

Mr. Peters. I will read you the letter of Secretary Lane, which 
describes many of those things. 

Thk Secrktaky of thk Interior. 

W(i.shiiiytoii, Mail 15. 1918. 

My Dear Mr. Ferris : I have your request of May 6, 1918. for a report on 
H. R. 1193.5. " A bill to establish the Mount Desert National Park in the State 
of Maine." 

While this measure proposes to t-reate a n-'w lueniher of the national park 
system, its effect, if enacted into law, would be To merely change the name of 
the Sieur de Monts National Monument and promote this area to the national 
park status, at the same time adequately inovidiiig for its extension and de- 
velopment along well-defined lines. As this monument is already under the 
jurisdiction of this department, and innnediately under rhe control of the Na- 
tional Park Service, by virtue of the act of August l!o, 191G, the National 
Park Service Act (39 Stat., 535), the only iaiportant question involved in this 
legislation is whether the monument lands f.re worthy of advancement to the 
national park class. I believe that the national park s'hould be estal)lished for 
the following reasons : 

First: Mount Desert Island has importait historic value. It is the place 
where Champlain first landed on this coast, and the French had a station here 
years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

Second : Scenically its impressive headlands give Mount Desert the distinc- 
tion of combining sea and mountain. Thei* headla.nds are by far the loftiest 
of our Atlantic coast. Their high, rounded summ'its, often craggy, and their 
splendid granite shelves form a backgrouixl for m rugged shore line and an 
island-dotted harbor which is one of the fiiest that even the IVIaine coast can 
present. Back of the shore is a mountain a'ld laJke wilderness which is typical 
in a remarkable degree of the range of Appalachian scenery. 

Third : From the point of view of conser^ ation. the value of the proposed 
park can hardly be overestimated. The forests are largely primeval. Oaks, 
beeches, birches, maples, ashes, poplars, and many other deciduous trees of our 
eastern ranges, here found in full luxuriance, riingle with groves of pine and 
giant hemlock. The typical shrubs of northei' stern America are in equal 
abundance. Wild flowers abound. There are few spots, if any, wdiich can 
combine the variety and luxuriance of the eas-ern forests in such small 
compass. 

The rocks also have their distinction. This was the first part of the conti- 
nent to emerge from the prehistoric sea. Archean granites in original exposure 
such as these, though common in eastern Canada, are rare in the United States. 
Worn by the ice sheets of the glacial period, eroded by the frosts and rains of 
the ages, their bases carved by the sea, their surfaces painted by the mosses 
and lichens of to-day, they are exhibits of scientific interest as well as beauty. 

Still another distinction is Mount Desert's wealth of bird life. All of the 
conditions for a bird sanctuary in the East seem to be here fulfilled. Once 
Mount Desert was the home of many deer, some of which are now returning 
from the mainland. Moose haunt it still occasionally. Once its streams 
abounded in beaver, and will again after a few of these animals are planted 
in its protected valleys. 

Fourth: From a recreational standpoint, the Mount Desert Park would be 
capable of giving pleasure in the summer months to hundreds of thousands of 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PAEK. 7 

people living east of tlie Mississippi River. Last year it was visited by more 
than 50,000 individuals. The island is accessible by automobile, railroad, and 
boat, and is only a relatively few hours distant from many large eastern 
cities. Developed as a national park in the interests of all the people, this 
reservation will become one of the greatest of our public assets. 

The Sieur de Monts National Monument was established by proclamation of 
the President, July 8, 1916. under the act of June 8, 1906, " An act for the 
preservation of American antiquities" (34 Stat., 225). A copy of this procla- 
mation is inclosed. 

The area of the monument is approximately 5,000 acres. All of this land was 
secured by purchase, or through donation, by the Hancock County Trustees of 
Public Reservations, was conveyed by this corporation to the United States 
and accepted by me under the authority of the Monuments Act. Since the 
establishment of the reservation, additional tracts of land to the extent of 
5.000 acres have been secured and tendered to the Government. I have indi- 
cated that I will accept tiiese lands as soon as the deeds and other instruments 
of title have been examined and found satisfactory in all respects. The reserva- 
tion, therefore, may be regarded as having a total area of approximately 
10.000 acres. Ultimately this will be extended to 20,000 acres through the con- 
tinued efforts of the public-spirited gentlemen who are devoting their time and 
l»ersonal funds to the development of this park enterprise. 

I have no criticism to make of the form of the pending bill, and I hope that 
the committee may give it early and favorable consideration. 
Cordially, yours, 

Franklin K. Lane, ' 

Secretary. 

Hon. Scott Fereis, 

Chairman Cominittev on Public Lands, 

House of Representatives. 

Mr. TiLLMAx. Mr. Peters, I also suggest that you insert in the 
record at this point a copy of the bill. 
Mr. Peters. Yes. 
(The bill referred to follows:) 

[H. R. 11935, 65th Congress, 2d Session.] 

A bill to establish the Mount Desert National Park in the State of Maine. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assembled, That the tracts of land, easements, and 
other veal estate heretofore known as the Sieur de IVIonts National Monument, 
situated on JMount Desert Island, in the county of Hancock and State of Maine, 
established and designated as a national monument under the act of June 
eighth, nineteen hundred and six, entitled "An act for the preservation of 
American antiquities." by presidential proclamation of July eighth, nineteen 
hundred and sixteen, is hereby declared to be a national park and dedicated as 
a public park for the benefit and enjoyment of the people under the name of 
the Mount Desert National Park. 

Sec. 2. That the administration, protection, and promotion of said Mount 
Desert National Park shall be exercised under the direction of the Secretary of 
the Interior, by the National Park Service, subject to the provisions of the 
act of August twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, entitled "An act 
to establish a National Park Service, and for other purposes," and acts addi- 
tional thereto or amendatory thereof. 

Sec. 3. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized in his discre- 
tion to accept in behalf of the United States such other property on said Mount 
Desert Island, including lands, easements, buildings, and moneys as may be 
donated for the extension or improvement of said park. 

Mr. Peters. The Chairman has asked me to develop the descrip- 
tion of the territory there, and I Avill ask Mr. Dorr to state in gen- 
eral the character of this land and to answer any questions that are 
asked. 

Mr. Tillman. Before you take your seat. Mr. Peters, I would 
like to ask you a question.' Are there any well-made roads inside the 
park now ? 



8 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

Mr. Peteijs. I refer that part of the matter to Mr. Dorr, because 
he is familiar with it. 

Mr. TTLL:\rAx. Suppose you let him develop that, then. I believe 
you are not asking any present appropriation. 

Mr. Peters. Yes. \\e are: but in the appropriation bill, not here. 

Mr. Mays. Have you had any appropriation heretofore? 

Mr. Peters. Xo. sir. 

Mr. Albright. AVe have used some funds there, possibly as much as 
$150, in the past two years, from our general monument fund. 

Mr. Mays. A negligible amount ? 

Mr. Albright. Yes. 

Mr. Peters. I will now ask Mr. Dorr to make a statement. ^Ir. 
Dorr is the custodian of the property, and has been on the board of 
selectmen of the town of Bar Harbor and is the gentleman through 
whose efforts, almost entirely, this property was gotten together and 
presented to the Government. 

Mr. Dorr. Will you ask me the points you want to bring out ? 

Mr. Tillman. I think the committee would prefer that you begin 
in your own way and give us a full and complete description of this 
property. 

Mr. Dorr. It is. briefly, a bold range of deeply divided mountains 
carved by the ice-sheet out of a once single block of granite and 
about 15 miles in length, facing the ocean. The coast about it is a 
sunken coast, a drowned coast as they say geologically, and is rich 
in bays and islands formed by the flooding of the ancient surface. 
Mount Desert Island has large bays. Frenchmans Bay and Blue- 
Hill Bay, on its eastern and western sides, connecting on the north. 
From the Avestern bay island-sheltered waterways, or thoroughfares 
as they are called down there, extend unbrokenly to Penobscot Bay 
and River, 40 miles away, so that Champlain, when he was guided 
up the river by the Indians in 1004. after visiting the Mount Desert 
Island, described the latter as a headland at the river's mouth. The 
south side of the island faces the open ocean and you get magnificent 
displays of surf there. 

I dwell on that feature of the sheltered bays and waterways because 
I feel it will play an exceedingly important part hereafter in the 
usefulness of the area as a park. These waters are all nationally 
owned, lying within the 3-mile limit, and can be used freely in 
connection with the park for house-boating, sailing, canoeing, fishing, 
bathing, and all kinds of water sports to a practically unlimited 
extent. 

Deep valleys separate the mountains, extending at one point be- 
low the level of the sea. so that the island is penetrated at its center 
by what is called Somes Sound, the only true glacial fiord we have 
on our coast. It extends inland some 8 miles and nearly divides the 
island into two. Mr. Franklin Roosevelt, the Assistant Secretary of 
the Xavy, told me he had taken a destroyer up that sound and turned 
it on a single circuit without backing, which he thought was re- 
markable as exhibiting its depth. 

Mr. Peters: Mr. Chairman, as showing the depth of that sound, 
there are granite quarries on the western side and a large 3-mastecl 
granite schooner came up there at one time and was sunk in the 
sound, and the schooner was in no way visible afterward because the 
water was so deep. 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 9 

Mr. Dorr. It would make a submarine base, incidentally, as im- 
pregnable as that on the Dalmatian Coast at Cattaro, which the 
Austrians have made such use of in the present war, and the scenery 
on entering it is equall}' magnificent. This picture [indicating] was 
taken from one of the moun1:ains that border it and which has been 
lately added to the park. It shows the entrance to the sound and 
the splendid harbor, island-sheltered, into which it opens [indicat- 
ing]. This mountain has been named by the Government Acadia 
Mountain, all of this region having formed part of the early French 
Province of Acadia. The whole fiord forms a wonderful exhibit of 
ancient volcanism and recent glacial erosion. The cliffs are very 
bold: the water deep. 

Nearly all of the other valleys eroded by the ice in its slow south- 
ward movement are filled with lakes, this [indicating] is where 
we get our water for Bar Harbor. We have magnificent water sup- 
plies, both lakes and springs. 

The bases of these mountains and their lower slopes are clothed 
with forest. The earlv summer ownership upon the island resulted 
in saving primeval forest growths Avhich could hardly be matched 
elsewdierc on the Xew England coast, stripped generally for its ease 
of shipment. 

With regard to wild flowers, I here submit a statement from Prof. 
Fernald. Chairman of the Botanical Faculty at Harvard. It is the 
best single area he knows for preserving and exhibiting in a wide 
ra^^S'e tho'^e of the northeastern section of the country. 

With regard to birds. Mr. Forbush. the State ornithologist of Mas- 
sachusetts, who made a study of it for us, says in a statement I submit 
also that the opportunity it" offers is extraordinary, and I submit be- 
sides a letter from Mr. Pearson, secretary of the National Association 
of Audubon Societies, which says that in all the years their association 
has been engaged in seeking to establish refuges or sanctuaries for 
wild bird life no area in the East of such importance to wild life, 
bird or other, has been set aside as sanctuary as that contained within 
the borders of the Sieur de Monts National Monument. 

Mr. McClintic. ^Ir. Dorr, speaking of bird life, do yon mean by 
that that it is a suitable place for the ducks that come up there from 
the South in the spring? 

Mr. Dorr. Certain favorable waters there used to be black with 
them in the spring and fall. This tract here [indicating on map] is 
the one we are securing expressly for the protection of these migrat- 
ing birds. 

Mr. McClintic. Is this appropriate ground for wild ducks and 
geese ? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes : it used to be covered with them in their season. 

Mr. McClintic. Let me ask you. how warm does it get there in the 
summer time in comparison with other sections of the United States? 

Mr. Dorr. It has a relatively even temperature on account of the 
ocean. During summer we have cool nights and warm sunshine in 
the day, but the air is always stimulating and bracing. 

Mr. McClixtic. How long are the summers? 

Mr. Dorr. Plant growth there begins actively toward the end of 
April, about a fortnight later than m Massachusetts. 

Mr. McClixtic. When does the bathing season close up there? 



10 MOUNT DESEBT NATIONAL PARK. 

Mr. Dorr. I hiive been in bathino; there in December. 

Mr. Peters. I do not know of anybody else who woukl want to o;o 
m at that time. 

Mr. McCeintic. Are there any large cities in close proximity to 
this area 'i 

Mr. Dorr. Bangor is the nearest. But this park wonld be used 
principally by people from beyond the State, not by Maine people. 
I went there myself from Boston as a boy. My father bought some 
land there then, on part of which we built a summer home and part 
of which has noAv been donated to the Government. 

The friends I have made there have come from the whole country 
to the eastward of the Rockies, from New Orleans, from St. Louis, 
from Cincinnati and Chicago, and largely from the South. We 
used to have a number of Kichmond people and Confederate service 
officers and their families there regularly at one time, and many 
people come there ahvays from AVashington and Baltimore, from 
Philadelphia and New York. It is a place of national resort, not 
in any sense a local area. 

Mr. McClintic. Is the surrounding country pretty thickly settled i 

Mr. Dorr. It is an agTicultural country, largely w^ooded still, 
where farming and market gardening are being gradually developed 
to supply the people who come to the shore in summer. The hay 
jDroduction is large, that of the State being the second greatest of 
any in the country, I believe: a little farther south lies the corn 
belt which supplies practically all the corn used for canning. For 
summer vegetables, Avhen rightly grown, the region is unsurpassed. 

Mr. McClintic. How far is "Bangor, Me., from this particular 
park? 

Mr. Dorr. About .50 miles, according to the road, and 4:0 miles as 
the crow flies. 

Mr. McClixtic. What kind of transportation facilities do you 
have to have to get to the park? 

Mr. Dorr. There is a railroad running from Bangor to the ferry, 
as Ave call it. They do not come across on the bridge, but ferry about 
8 miles across the bay. Tliere Avas talk of coming in by Avay of the 
bridge a fcAv years ago, but the plan Avas given up — largely, I think, 
because the sununer visitors did not Avant to lose the beautiful ap- 
proach across the bay. 

Mr. McClixtic. There is a ferry service across the bay to this 
area ? 

Mr. Dorr. Tlie route lies there [indicating]. It is a beautiful 
sail across. 

Mr. Peters. Passengers are transferred from the railroad to 
steamboats. 

Mr. McClixtic. If this area Avere made into a park, Avhat sort of 
railroad accommodations or connections would the people have in 
reaching it? 

Mr. Peters. They are the best in the world. In the summer, be- 
ginning early in June, there is a train running from Washington 
direct to Bar Harbor, called the Bar Harbor express. You get 
on that train at the station in Washington, and do not get off until 
you get to Bar Harbor, or until you are transferred to the ferry. 

Mr. McClixtic. Hoav far is Bar Harbor from this area ? 



MOUNT DESERT NATTONAL PARK. 11 

Mr. Peters. The park lies partly in Bar Harbor, reaching- almost 
to the town. 

Mr. McClintic. How are the automobile roads? 

Mr. Dorr. More people have been coming during the hist two or 
three years by motor than by train. 

Mr. Tillman. Are the roads in good condition ? 

Mr. Peters. The State of Maine has made a bond issue and has 
built a very fine road from Ellsworth, which is the county seat of 
that county, to Bar Harbor, and there is a very good road from 
Bangor to"^ Ellsworth. There is a system of roads being built in 
Maine that will carry all of the tourist travel from Boston, Port- 
land, and Gloucester, down into this country. 

Mr. Tillman. Are there any roads inside of the park? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Peters. On that point of transportation, let me say, I live 
at Ellsworth, the county seat of that county, and in summer I think 
there are seven trains a day each way, passing through my town to 
and from Bar Harbor. Then, there is a regular boat service from 
Portland and Boston. 

Mr. McClintic. If this should be made into a park, would there 
be roads leading to every part of it? 

Mr. Dorr. There are roads leading to every part of the park and 
some through the park. The town of Bar Harbor has expended 
thousands of dollars — approximately $12,000, I think, since the park 
was formed, tAvo years ago— in improving those running throughout. 
The park is one, how^ever, that lends itself to an intensive develop- 
ment by footpaths and bridle paths rather than to an extensive one 
by quickly traversed motor roads. An area of 20,000 or even 30.000 acres 
would be run through very quickly in an automobile, but one can 
wander over such a tract as this by foot and bridle paths for weeks 
and not exhaust its interest. The secenery is such that every hun- 
dred acres in it has individual interest. 

Mr. Tillman. There are sufficient bridle paths and footpaths 
through the park? 

Mr. Peters. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Tillman. What are the hotel facilities at Bar Harbor? 

Mr. Dorr. They are very considerable, but they will be extended 
in connection with the park. 

Mr. Peters. They already have very large hotel accommodations 
at Bar Harbor. 

Mr. McClintic. How close are the hotels to the park? 

Mr. Peters. Within a short walk of 5 or 10 minutes. 

Mr. Dorr. They lie all around it at different points on the coast. 
The villages, sprung from early fishing settlements, all lie on the 
coast. 

' Mr. McClintic. Does anybody have any supervision of the hotels 
so as to protect the public from excessive charges if complaints of 
that kind should be lodged ? 

Mr. Dorr. No, sir; that w^ould have to be developed with the de- 
velopment of the park. 

Mi\ Peters. Some of those hotels have been there for 30 or 40 
years. 

Mr. Tillman. Are they excessive in their charges? 



12 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

Mr. Peters. There are all grades of hotels there. 

Mr. Dorr. You can get good board and lodging there as low as 
$15 per week. 

Mr. Peters. There are all grades of hotel accommodations for 
people who want different kinds of provision. 

Mr. McClintic. The reason I ask that question is because m some 
of our western parks we allow hotel companies to come in and build 
hotels, but they are run under the supervision of the Government to 
a certain extent so that the public may be protected along certain 
lines. 

Mr. Peters. The situation there protects itself. 

Mr. McClintic. If we make this property into a park, just as we 
have made the other parks, we must in some way. if it is possible, 
take care of the interests of the traveling public. 

Mr. Peters. I would suggest that that situation for the present, 
and in the future so far as we can foresee, takes care of itself, 
because there are resorts all around the property. Each of those 
resorts has numerous hotels competing with each other, and there 
are boarding houses at some of those places where people are accom- 
modated by the natives for a longer or shorter time in the summer 
and fall. There is a considerable number of them, and the accom- 
modations are very excellent and ver}^ reasonable on account of 
competition and for other reasons. 

Mr. Mays. Is there any privately oAvnecl land within the present 
boundaries of the monument? 

Mr. Dorr. Xo, sir ; the Secretary of the Interior would not accept 
the tract until we had obtained every piece of property that lay in- 
side of its lines. There are no private rights or easements of any 
kind within its boundaries. 

Mr. McClintic. I notice the picture of a house inside the park 
that is now being used by the custodian: Who built that house? Was 
it contributed? 

Mr. Dorr. Frankly, I did. 

Mr. McClintic. I wanted to know whether some good man con- 
tributed it. 

Mr. Dorr. I wanted to secure the situation for the future. It lies 
right on the border of Bar Harbor, and I got the land opposite it 
given for a public athletic field, parade ground and i^ark. The 
nearer mountains of the park lie in full view from it and from it 
starts the path system that connects it with Bar Harbor. 

Our idea as to the park has been to develop it for the brain work- 
ers of the country, people who would be responsive to the beauty 
and inspiration of its scenery, and can get away for a brief or longer 
holiday. They are going there no^v, in nuuibers, but what we want 
to provide for specially is the need of people of moderate or narrow 
means who would appreciate Avhat it has to give in beauty, interest," 
and climate. Areas are being selected now within the park, where 
similar buildings to those provided in the western parks may be 
built in the future as soon as funds are available for the park's de- 
velopment in connection with them. 

Mr. Tillman. Are there any other national parks or monuments 
in the New England States? 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 13 

Mr. Dork. Xo, sir ; this is the only one east of Arkansas. 

Mr. Tillman. The proposition is to make that the principal and 
most attractive northeastern resort? 

. Mr. Dorr. I think it is likely to be the only national park area 
to the north of Washington and east of Indiana. 

Mr. McClintic. How much appropriation are you asking for« 

Mr. Dorr. The secretary made his own estimate after seeing the 
park last sunnner, asking for $50,000. It Avas an estimate based on 
his judgment of its needs and opportunities for usefulness, and on 
what had been previously given other parks. 

Mr. McClintic. How does that compare with the amounts given 
to other national monuments or parks? In other words, in the 
creation of other parks, we have had a uniform provision relative to 
the amount of the appropriation, have we not? 

Mr. Alrrtght. That w^as in the case of those big undeveloped 
areas wdiere practically nobody was going at the time. For in- 
stance, there is an inhibtion in the organic acts establishing Mt. Mc- 
Kinlev and Hawaii National Parks, limiting the annual appropria- 
tion to $10,000. 

Mr. McClintic. What Avas the attitude of the Appropriations 
Committee toward this project? 

Mr. Albright. It is impossible to say just what attitude the com- 
mittee has, so far as the new" development is concerned, because the 
sundry civil bill has not beeji reported out yet, but I can say this, 
that there w^as a tremendous amount of interest taken in the project 
by the Appropriations Committee, and there was absolutely no 
adverse comment on the project or upon any of the ideas suggested 
for its development. This area is already visited by pretty close to 
60,000 people, making it the third national park area in point of 
patronage. 

Mr. McClintic. What percentage of those people live there? 

Mr. Albright. A very small percentage. 

Mr. Peters. Let me say this : I live nearby there and I know the 
natives who live around there. I do not suppose that 1 man out of 
100 who lives there know^s of the beauty of this place; but if it is 
developed as a national park the local people will take more interest 
in it. 

Mr. Albright. You wall find a smaller percentage of local people 
visiting Mount Desert than you will find of local people visiting 
Yellowstone, Yosemite, and some of the other large national parks. 
The percentage of local people visiting the western parks is some- 
tiilies quite large. I think very few Maine and Massachusetts people 
visit this park. 

Mr. Tillman. I would like to hear something in regard to the fish- 
ing proposition. I think this subcommittee is interested in fishing. 
Suppose you describe the lakes in there; the kind of water you have, 
and the kind of fish that are now in those lakes. 

Mr. Dorr. The water in the lakes is very pure, but at the same 
time it is good fishing water. As you know, some pure waters are 
relatively barren of fish, but fish are naturally abundant in these 
waters. 

Mr. Tillman. What kind of fish? 



14 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

Mr. Dorr. Trout and salmon trout. 

Mr. Tillman. Game fish. 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir. In addition to that, we have splendid deep- 
sea fishing all around. The people do quite as much deep-sea fishing 
and fishing along the rocky coast as in the lakes. 

Mr. Tillman. Have you made any effort to stock those lakes with 
fish from the Government hatcheries? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir : we have introduced a number lately. We have 
one Government fish hatchery quite close to Mr. Peters's home, and 
it is ready to ship, and does ship annually extensive supplies of fish. 
Then. Ave have within easy reach from the park other lakes on the 
mainland, where the people can go within an easy half-hour's motor 
ride. The people use equally the lakes within the park and the lakes 
outside of the park, for all bodies of water of over 8 or 10 acres in 
extent in Maine are what Ave call great ponds, and are open to the 
public. 

Mr. Mays. What species of trout do you have there — eastern brook 
or rainbow? 

Mr. Dorr. We do not have the rainboAv trout. We have tAvo 
species of trout, but I can not at the moment recall their names. 

Mr. Peters. Do they have the squarotail trout there? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir; we have the squaretail trout. 

Mr. Peters. And the speckled brook trout? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir; the speckled brook trout. We have them both 
abundanth'. 

Mr. TiLLisrAN. Are those waters cold in summer? 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir. They stay cold the Avhole season through. 

Mr. Tillman. I should think you could ha\^e the rainboAv trout 
there. 

Mr. Mays. Besides the lakes, do you have any streauis ( 

Mr. Dorr. Yes, sir; Ave have some good streams, streams Avhich I 
have seen the trout lying across in a solid mass in the spaAvning 
season in the fall. It is an extraordinary sight. I have seen trout 
18 inches long lying side by side, heading upstream forming a solid 
mass across the brook. 

Mr. Tillman. Are there any springs in the park? 

Mr. poRR. Yes. sir; there are some splendid deep-seated springs, 
that will some day uuike an important feature in the park. 

Mr. Mays. To Avhat altitude do those mountains rise? 

Mr. Dorr. The highest one is 1,5'27 feet, but as Ave have no build- 
ings to show scale on them, they give the impression of a far greater 
altitude. They are very bold, and men experienced in SavIss moim- 
tain climbing, haAe told me that there are places on them that the 
Swiss guides Avould not like to climb unpracticed. It is an Alpine 
area in miniature, sculptured on one side by the sea and on the other 
side by ice. This area is rich in lakes and streams, rich in forest 
groAvth, and rich in marshlands suited to Avild life. 

Mr. Tillman. Is there anything else you Avant to add ? 

Mr. Peters. Unless you have some further questions to ask, I do 
not know of anything. 

Mr. Albright. Do you think it Avell to put some of these printed 
statements in the records? 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 15 

Mr. Peters. I Avoiikl like to read a very brief extract from the 
letter of Secretary Lane to Mr. Mather. This letter is dated May 
13. 1918, and I will read just two paragraphs from it: 

In studying new park projects, you should seek to find scenery of supreme 
and distinctive quality or some natural feature so extraordinary or unique as 
to be of national interest and importance. You should seek distinguished exam- 
ples of typical forms of world architecture; such, for instance, as the Grand 
Canyou. as exemplifying the highest accomplishment of stream erosion, and 
the high, inigged portion of Mount Desert Island as exemplifying the oldest 
rock forms in America and the luxuriance of deciduous forests. * * * 

It is not necessary that a national park should hiive a large area. The ele- 
ment of size is of no importance as long as the park is susceptible of effective 
administration and control. 

^Ir. Albright. That letter sets forth the policy of the Xational 
Park Service. 

Mr. Till:man. I also ask that these statements by Mr. Lane, Mr. 
Roosevelt, Mr. Ogden. Mr. Wickersham, Mr. Halsey. and others, be 
})rinted in the record. 

(The statements referred to are as follows:) 

The Proposed Mox^nt Desert National Park. 
Stdtciiioit hij Hon. Frankliu K. Liuic. Secrvtari/ of the Interior. 

Ir is a ti-ue park area in the highest sense, totally different from any other 
that we have and capable of giving untold refreshment to the great town and 
city populations of our country to the eastward of the ^Mississippi. It is the 
only national park — using the word in its descriptive sense — that fronts upon 
the sea, and it represents at its culminating point one of the oldest and most 
important recreation areas iipon the Continent — the New England coast. 

It is a tract of extraordinary variety and interest, a l)old mountain chain 
<-ompressed within the limits of an island 15 miles across — though 70 or 80 in 
its ocean frontage. A dozen or more separate peaks, deeply divided by lakes 
and gorges and an ocean inlet, make up this chain. The most beautiful woods 
remaining on that coast — once famous for its timber — lie around the mountain 
bases. 

The lands constituting the monument have been for over 60 years the object 
of re>;ort from all the great eastern cities, from southern ones extending to 
New Oi-leans. and central ones to St. Louis. Now, over 50,000 people visit the 
monument each summer, making it third among the national park areas in the 
number of its visitors. Placed as it is in relation to the great eastern popu- 
lation centers, and equally accessible by boat and motor as by train, this num- 
ber may readily be doubled within a few years' time by right development. 

The monument was made possible by the gift of citizens, and it has been gen- 
erously added to since its creation. 

The creation of this monument was not the result of chance, but of carefully 
thought out intention; the gift that made it possible simply provided opportunity 
for carrying that intention out. No better way of extending into the crowded 
eastern regions of the country the immediate benefits of our national park sys- 
tem could have been devised than that presented by the monument, which for 
the first time gave this system access to navigable waters on a harbored coast, 
and gave tl)e East a national park area characteristic of its greatest recreational 
features. 

STATEMENT OF HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

It is our one eastern national park and gives for the first time to the crowded 
eastern portion of the country the opportunity to share directly and immediately 
in the benefits of our national park system. Its striking ocean frontage makes 
it unlike every other park. 

I have watched with keen interest the work that has led to the creation of 
this park. Under right development it will give a healthy playground to multi- 



16 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PAEK. 

tudes of hard-working men and women who need such a playground. Moreover, 
it constitutes a wild life sanctuary under national guardianship at a spot where 
such a sanctuary is greatly needed. 

STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID B. OGDEN. 

It is now upward of .50 years since I and my family first went to INIount Des- 
ert Island, and I think I can say that in every intervening summer some member 
of my family has Iteen there. It is there that during the whole of my profes- 
sional life I have found strength and refreshment more abundantly than I have 
found it elsewhere either in this counti-y or in Europe. The breezes from the 
Atlantic, mingling with the life-giving breath of the forest of pine and spruce, 
the matchless grandeur of the distant views, the beauty and picturesqueness of 
the immediate surroundings, and, above all, the coolness of the atmosphere, 
make a combination which cau not be matched by the Atlantic coast north of 
Rio de Janeiro. If ever nature indicated a beneficent purpose of affording 
health and enjoyment to the sous of men, she has done it on Mount Desert 
Island. 

That it should have been set apart as a national park was, I think, one of the 
most important peaceful events of our recent national history. 

******* 

Already the statistics show that the number of visitors during the past two 
years exceeds the number going to any other national park of recreative char- 
acter except the Rocky Mountain Park, and I feel confident that this number, 
great as it is, will increase with amazing rapidity in the future if means are 
taken of enabling persons of moderate means, to whom a visit to the far West 
is an impossibility, to come to Mount Desert Island and spend there without 
undue exitense the leisure time which the summer affords them. Everywhere 
on the island are to be found sites of exceptional beauty for the erection of 
small houses, and the cost of living is not excessive. There are thousands of 
men situated as I am and have been — hard workers whose strength and vitality 
can only be maintained by breaking away from labor for a shoi-t period — to 
whom this park is going to prove a measureless blessing. 

STATEilENT OF HON. GEORGE W. WICKERSHA^r. 

Mount Desert Island is uuiciue in many particulars. It is a mountainous isle, 
surrounded by ocean and bay, and de^^^ply indebted l)y estuaries of the sea. In 
proiMirlion to its superficial area, it embraces more beauty and presents more 
opportunities for places of healthful recreation than any" place with which I 
am familiar in the United States. There is a small fringe of expensive hpmes 
of the wealthy wdiich girdles a part of its perimeter. On the other hand, there 
is a va.-;t expanse of property most admirably adapted for summer homes of 
people of very moderate means. For that reason it has been for years a 
favorite resort of professional and scholastic folk all over the country. " It was 
for several years the summer resort of your compatriot. Prof. Shaler, and the 
I)eople who are interested in the movement to make it a national park are 
looking to the benefit of the large class of brain workers of small means, who 
niiiy find there a source of reinvigoration and inspiration at small cost. In 
achlition to that, the place has great possibilities as a bird refuge, for the 
protection of the wild-bird life of the eastern country. The climate and 
conditions surrounding it are, I believe, exceptionally adapted to, that purpo.se. 

STATEilEXT OF -REV. A. W. HALSEY, D. D. 

Thirty years ago I visited Bar Harbor and was charmed with its wondrous 
beauty. For the past 15 years, every summer I have spent three or four weeks 
at P.ar Harbor, and I know something of its lure. It grows upon one with the 
years. Congress never did a better piece of work than when it set apart this 
masterpiece of nature for a national park. Each year I have seen increased 
numbers of what Abraham Lincoln called the " common people " going to the 
park to enjoy its beauties. If proper arrangements are made, I believe this 
number will inci-ense rapidily with the years, as the Sieur de Monts National 
Monument is the only national park in this section of the country where dwell 
many millions, large numbers of whom, if the way were open, could be induced 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 17 

to spend a portion of each year in this delightful resort. The appropriation 
will aid much in making permanent what has already been done. The summer 
residents at Bar Harbor and those who are interested in this project have 
shown a spirit of unselfishness, of sacrifice, of high idealism, and of good 
citizenship that 1 believe has not been excelled by any group of men and women 
anywhere in the country. They should receive the hearty and cordial co- 
operation of the (Joverament for what they are aiming to accomplisli is that 
this park may be made available for the i)eople. 

STATEMENT OF REV. WILLIAM T. MANXIXG. D. I). 

This park offers a quite unequalled opportunity for rest and recuperation 
to the busy, overworked men and women in the eastern part of our country. 
* * * It possesses extraordinary natural attractions and possibilities; it 
can be develoi^ed without undue expenditure; and it is far nearer at hand 
than any other national park to the greatest number of those who need such 
jjrovisions. 

STATEMENT OF HOX. T. GlLliERT PEARSON, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDOBON 

SOCIETIES. 

Through cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, and also to 
some extent by purchase, this association has been actively engaged the past 
fifteen years in seeking to establish a chain of refuges or sanctuaries for wild- 
l)ird life, extending from Maine to Florida and west to the Pacific coast. 
Throughout the entire period no area of such importauce to wild life has been 
set aside as sanctuary in the Eastern States as that contained within the 
boundaries of the Sieur de Monts National Monument, created by Executive 
order through the monument act, July 8, 1916. 

STATEMENT OF I51SH0P WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 

I have been a summer resident of Mount Desert since 1870, and have met 
there travelers from all over the world. All agree that there are few, if any, 
spots anywhere which combine such qualities of mountainous area close to the 
ocean, of exhilarating sea and mountain air, of unique forestrv and fauna due 
to its position between the cold belt of Canada and the warmer belt of Cape 
Cod. It is bound to be a spot to which people from all parts of the United 
States will iucreasingly turn ; indeed, have turned already. The only national 
park in the East, it will give such an opiiortunity. moreover, for' the com- 
mingling of citizens from North, South, East and West, as is helpful for the 
unification of the people. 

STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS EWING. 

I am very much interested in the plans of the Interior Department for the 
development of the Sieur de Monts National Monument. I have been going to 
a place bordering it on Frenchman's Bay for many years. No section of the 
country is better suited to give opportunity for rest and recreation in • the 
summer to large numbers of peo])le of iiuxlerate means than Mount Desert 
Island. 

It lies within easy boat and motor reach from great business and industrial 
centers as far south at least as New York, and easy railroad reach from many 
States. What is needed is to make its points of interest and beauty readily 
accessible and to fit it to be a place of residence of a simple kind for th*e multi- 
tudes of people who live where they can come to it. 

It also seems to me that this is a time when it is peculiarly desirable to 
develop our home resources for recreation and the upbuilding of the vitality of 
the people, particularly the people whose lives are cast along somewhat narrow 
lines and who need to be assisted to get out of the ruts and obtain the uplift 
and inspiration of a spot like this. 

STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR CARL E. MILLIKEN. 

The State of Maine is warmly interested in the development of the na- 
tional park upon its coast entitled the " Sieur de Monts National Monument." 

G4235— IS 2 



18 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

This park which iuis been the ii\tt of citizens to the National Government, 
<)ccui)ies the most beautiful tract of land on the Atlantic coast, and has excep- 
tional historic interest. Readily accessible from every eastern section of the 
country, unique in landsca])e cliaracter and bordering on the sea, the resort to 
it, and its value to the pulilic as a recreative area would readily be doubled 
in a few years' time by right development. * * * 

This is the one eastern representative of the national park system, a 
system maintained at the general expense for all the people. It stands already 
third among the national park areas of the country in the number of its visitor.? 
and lias yet received no Federal aid. 

STATEMENT OF .lACOB H. SCHTFF. 

I have been a resident during the sunuuei- on Mount Desert Lsland for the 
past 1.5 years: have visited almost every nook and corner on the island, and in 
my travels all over the United States and in foreign countries, I have found 
no .section that nature has made more attractive than Mount Desert Island. 
I really believe that the island is one of the finest gifts (Un\ has l)estowed upon 
the people of the United States, and it is but right that they should show 
themselves woi-thy of this gift by seeing to its pi-oper i)rotection and preser- 
vation. 

It is. therefore, a source of congratulaf.on that the (iovernment has taken 
this upon itself by taking over a larger part of the island and making it into 
a national park, and it is to be hoped that it will likewise see to the proper 
mahitenance of the newly created park through moderate expenditures as may 
r)e re(iuired to make ths park a real joy and benefit to the v)eople of our 
country, who are visiting it in ever increasing nu miters. 

Mr. TiLL^NtAN. Mr. Albright, we would he olad to ho:ir siicli state- 
ments as you desire to make. 

Mr. Albkkjht. The attitude of our bureau could not possibly be 
more strongly and emphatically expressed than Secretary Lane has 
expressed it in his letter. We are enthusiastically in favor of the 
establishment of the park. Of course, at the present time we have 
the authority to develop this national monument in just exactly the 
same manner that Ave Avould have if it Avas a national ]:)ark, but Ave 
do not believe that this national monument, big as it is and contain- 
ing such extraordinary natural features .should remain in that status. 
There are probably -2 oi- 3 monuments in the entire group of 35 
national monuments — not more than 5, anyAvay — that should be ele- 
vated to the national park plane. I think there is one other that may 
come before the committee in the course of tAvo or three years', and 
that is one in Mr. May's State, Zion K^ational Monument/ Avhich Ave 
are just noAv developing. The bill providing for the establishment 
of a national park at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, of course, 
is noAV before this connnittee. Sieur de Morets monument, as the 
Secretary indicated in his letter, is in the national park class, and 
Ave feel that it ought to be given that superior status. 

Mr. Tillman. In that connection, Avill you enlighten the connnittee 
or. the que.stion of the distinction betAveen a national monument and 
a national park? 

Mr. Albright. National monuments are created by the President 
under the act of June 8, 1906 (3-t Stats., 225.) ; national parks are 
established by act of Congress. I might read the monuments act 
into the record. 

Mr. Tillman. I think you could explain in a feAV Avords the distinc- 
tion between the tAvo. 

Mr. Albright. This act of June 8, 1906. authorizes the President to 
set aside as national monuments lands in the public domain Avhich 
possess great scientific or historic interest, or lands containing some 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PAEK. 19 

great historic landmark, and if lands containing features of that 
character are not in public ownership, the Secretary of the Interior 
is authorized to accept donations of such lands, and after accepting 
them, he may recommend to the President the establishment of 
monuments. Xow, that act was passed on June 8, 1906, and in the 
same year the Devil's Tower, in Wyoming, was set aside. That was 
the first national monument. 

From time to time, since the establishment of that monument, 
nearl}^ 40 have been created. Some have been abolished, but there 
are now 35. Twenty-two are under the National Park Service, 11 
under the Forest Service and '2 under the War Department. Of 
these, only two have been established on privately owned lands, or 
on privately owned land donated for the purpose. One is Muir 
Woods National Monument, Cal.. which was donated by former Con- 
gressman William Kent, in 1908, and the other is the Sieur de 
Monts National Monument, Me., which we are considering, an area 
donated b}^ the Hancock County trustees of public reservations on 
July 8, 1916. Congress probably meant that areas in the monument 
class should be set aside and protected, but that no great amount of 
development work should be done. For instance, the cliff dwelling 
called Montezuma Castle in Arizona is within a national monument 
and needs only to be restored as nearly as possible to its original 
form, and then left alone. No great area was taken in to preserve 
these ruins. As a matter of fact. Congress did not appropriate any 
money for national monuments until two years ago, when $3,500 was 
appropriated for the whole monument system. Fifteen thousand 
dollars was later ap])ropriated for the monument in southern Utah, 
known as the Zion National Monument. That money was appro- 
priated to build a road in the monument, and it was completed last 
year. Five thousand dollars was appropriated for the monuments in 
the last sundry civil act, and this year we are asking for $11,600 for 
the Avhole system. Of that $11,600 we expect to spend $5,000 on the 
Petrified Forest National Monument in Arizona, We regarded the 
Sieur de Monts National Monument as in a different class, and Ave 
submitted a sei)arate estimate for it, just as if it were already in the 
status of a national ]Dark. It has been alone in that situation before 
the Appr()])riations Committee. 

Mr. McClintic. You say you have submitted an estimate for this 
national monument? 

Mr. Ai.BRiGiiT. Yes, sir; $50,000 was requested. When we sub- 
mitted the estimates, we did not know that it would be the policy 
of the Appropriations Committee not to undertake any extension 
of roads and trails as in the past, but when we learned that was its 
policy, when we appeared before the committee, we miturally ex- 
pected many new projects to be eliminated. 

Mr. McClintic. In the event the status of this area is changed 
from a national monument into that of a national park, what do you 
intend to do with the $50,000 that you have asked for, if that ap- 
propriation is given? 

Mr. Albright. We expect 

Mr. McClintic (interposing). Is the park fenced? 

Mr. Albright. No, sir ; and there is no necessity for fencing it. I 
can not give the exact items, but probably $10,000 would be expended 
in continuing those roads that the town authorities have already 



20 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 



built up to the boundaries and extending them into the park. Sev- 
eral thousand dollars Avould be expended in developing the trail sj^s- 
tem, and also ask for $5,000 to spend in forestry work. 

Mr. McClintic. How many men would it take to keep this park 
up in proper shape ? 

Mr. Albright. We have had no opportunity to study that yet, 
having had no one in employ there. Mr. Dorr has been taking charge 
of it as custodian, but without assistance. 

Mr. McClintic. The reason I asked that question was that prob- 
ably you covered an item of that kind in the estimates. 

^Ir. Albright. We have an item of only $5,000 for the protection 
of the monument, in addition to two or three other employees, one 
of them the chief ranger, whom we exi)ect to employ all the year 
round, but the administrative expense is going to be comparatively 
light. 

Mr. McClintig. Is there anything in that estimate for the con- 
struction of buildings? 

Mr. Albright. Yes. Two ranger stations. I will read our esti- 
mate for the Sieur de Monts monument : 

Sieiu' de Monts National Moniunent, I\Liine: For protection and imjirove- 
ment, including not execeeding $1,400 for purchase, maintenance, operation, and 
repair of a motor-driven passenger-carrying vehicle for use or rangers in ad- 
ministration of the monument, .$50,000, to be available immediately. 



Employees. 


Rate per 
annum. 


Estimated, 
1919. 


Salaries: 

Chiaf ranger 


.«I,000 

750 

1,000 


Numher. 
I 






Clerk 


1 










$-(.250 







OTHER OBJECTS OF EXPENDITURE. 

Roads: 






Dry Mountain road, 1 mile, $5,000 per mile 




5 000 


Southwest Valley road, 1 mile, S5,000 per miie . . . 




5 000 


Foot and bridle paths: 

Newport Moimtain and Picket Mountain system, 3 miles, at $1,000 per mile. 




3 000 


Spring Heath paths to Dry Mountain, to Kebo Pass, and to the Gorge, 3 
miles, at $1 ,000 per mile 




3,000 
2 640 






Fu-e lanes and mountain trails, 5 miles, at S.500 per mile 




2 500 


Wood clearing, forestry work, clearing undergrowth, checking insect depreda- 




5,000 


Buildmgs, two ranger cabms, locatea, respectively, on Newport Mountain road 
and Southwest Valley road, at $1,000 . . 




2,000 
2 000 


Entrances, 2, at Sfl,000 




Plan for park development, including mountain road and other surveys, en- 






Miscellaneous: 

Signs for marking boundaries, roads, etc 




300 


Flagpole 




10 


Purchase of motor-driven passenger-carrving vehicle for use of rangers in ad- 
ministration of the monument, including maintenance, operation, and 
repair thereof. 




1 400 


Rent of office, intluding janitor service, light, and heat •. 






Office e()uipment, filing furniture, typewriting machine, stationery, telegraph 












Total 




50,000 







We submitted this estimate, gentlemen, just as we submitted esti- 
mates for the other national parks, not as a national-monument proj- 
ect at all, because this region does not lend itself to large develop- 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 21 

ment under the Xational-moniunent act. It is bigger and finer and 
has more functions to perform in the national life than the ordinary 
national monument and it should not go on and be developed under 
the monument idea. As I have indicated, we want to present to the 
connnittee from time to time three or four or five monmnents that 
ought to be elevated to a higher status and it mav be that there are 
some of our national parks— one anyway out in North Dakota— that 
probably ought to be reduced to the monument status. 

This monument in Maine is presented first because it is ready to be- 
come a national park now. 

]\Ir. Peters. Let me say in regard to tliis park that the word monu- 
ment has no descriptive value in relation to this propertv. It can not 
be known as a monument, and you can not get the people down there 
to call it a monument ; they call it a park now because it is a park. 

Mr. Albright. As I have said, this is more than a monument, be- 
cause it is of great scientific interest; it has bird life, animal life, and 
geological formations and historical associations that are of national 
importance. 

Mr. McClixtic. T thiuk the Chairman showed good judgment in 
asking you to make an explanation of the difference betwe^en a na- 
tional park and a national monument, because we are going to handle 
other monuments in the future, and we may be called on to reduce a 
national park to the status of a national monument. 

Mr. Albright. The ditlerence is not altogether clear, because when 
the National Park Service was created, under the act of August 25, 
1916 (39 Stat. 535), they were all treated together. As "national 
parks, national monuments and the Hot Springs Reservation in 
Ai'kansas." and the authority to administer each and every monu- 
ment, reservation and park in the same manner was given to this 
new bureau. Therefore, so far as the National Park Service act is 
concerned, there is no distinction except in the nomenclature. 

Mr. Dorr. Is not the Arizona Grand Canyon a national monu- 
ment ^ 

Mr. Albright. Yes, it is a national monument, although the Sen- 
ate passed a bill the other day making it a national park. That park 
project has been pending in Congress since 1885. 

Mr. Mays. You are more likely to get the necessary funds with 
which to maintain a park than you are to secure funds for a main- 
tenance of a monument, are you not ? 

Mr. Albright. Oh, yes ; there is no question about that. We have 
22 monuments under our jurisdiction, and we can not expect the 
Committee on Appropriations to enter upon the policy of making 
liberal appropriations for all of these monuments. 

Mr. Tillman. The parks and monuments have many things in 
common, but there is not likely to be the same expenditure of money 
on the national monuments as on the national parks. The national 
monuments have their natural attractions and natural wonders, and 
the only object is to keep them in their natural state. 

Mr. Albright. Yes; the object is to keep them in their natural 
state, and it is farthest from our ambitions to ask for money to 
largely develop those areas. 

Mr. Tillman. Is there any game in this park ? 



22 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

Mr. Dorr. We had an automobile stopped last November by a 
moose appearing in the road, and that moose declined to get out of 
the road. It was in the evening. 

Mr. McClintic. Did he belong there or had he escaped from some 
show ? 

Mr. Dorr. Xo; the moose evidently came from the mainland; the 
water across is quite shallow. A couple of moose got into the garden 
of one of my friends within three or four years and they are quite 
abundant in the region. The State protected its deer for a number 
of years and then it removed the protection. They removed that 
protection on a certain date in January and on that day men went 
out with dogs, a number of men, and rounded up in a herd every 
deer to be found and killed them all. That is what happens if you 
do not have potection. We have had no protection this year except 
that one of my friends employed a couple of men to protect the deer 
during the past winter. There should be some (Tovernment protec- 
tion of the game there. 

Mr. McClintic. Would you object to a provision being put in this 
bill requiring the State to look after the protection of the game on 
that island in cooperation with the Government? 

Mr. Dorr. I think they would gladly do it, but it might be safer 
to limit it to the park lands and those immediately adjoining it. 
Mr. Peters could answer that better than I can. 

Mr. Peters. I think that would bring about an undesirable com- 
plication. I think there would be no trouble about getting the co- 
operation of the State 

Mr. Dorr (interposing). I am sure there would not be any trouble 
as to that. 

Mr. Peters (continuing). But to make a condition of that kind, 
I fear, might lead to further complications, unless the committee has 
some reason to offer why that should be done. 

Mr. Mays. I think that would be unusual. 

Mr. TiLL^FAN. As a matter of fact, if the Government takes this 
over and pays money for it, I presume that this wild game would be 
protected the same as it is in the Yellowstone Park and the other 
parks. 

Mr. McClintic. I was only referring to that island. You only 
have a small tract on that island and if you turned them loose to 
kill the game on the balance of the island your protection in the park 
, Avould not be worth anything, but if the State protected the game on 
that island. I am sure the State would quickly extend its protecting 
arm all through that island and that would give the needed protec- 
tion. 

Mr. Peters. I think they will, anyAvay, because the policy of the 
State is very much in favor of the protection of its game. It spends 
a very large amount of money through its fish and game commission 
for the protection of the game of the State, because that is one of the 
greatest assets of the State. They made a grave mistake in permit- 
ting an open season on the island, which they have realized, and that 
will never happen again, so that conditions will be perfectly satis- 
factory, I am certain, and I would rather there would not be any 
such condition placed in the bill. 



MOUNT DESEBT NATIONAL PARK. 23 

Mr. McClixtic. I have no desire to add aiw amendment to the 
bill which would impede its passage in the House. 

Mr. Albright. I think we could handle that as Ave do in the West- 
ern States, Avhere we have appeared before the legislatures and laid 
our point of vie>y before the proper committees. In almost every 
case Ave have received the cooperation we asked for. 

Mr. Peters. I would almost be willing to guarantee the committee 
that Ave can get such legislation as Avould be satisfactory to this com- 
mittee. 

Mr. McClintic. Do you not think it would be a pretty good idea 
for the JVIaine delegation, or those members Avho live in* close prox- 
imity to this park, to take this up Avith the Maine State Legislature 
and ask that sufficient legislation be enacted to give protection to this 
immediate section? 

Mr. Peters. Yes. I do. This is in the district I represent and I 
Avill undertake, with the cooperation of Mr. Dorr, Avho represents the 
local section, to ask for legislation next Avinter Avhich Avill cover the 
situation entirely, and I have no question that it Avill be granted. 

Mr. McClintic. I Avant to say that in the State of Oklahoma Ave 
have a little game preserve, called the Wichita Game Preserve, and 
Avhen I Avas a member of the legislature. Senator Thomas and my- 
self introduced a bill — he Avas a member of the Senate and I Avas a 
member of the House — Avhich provided for the protection of game 
in every county adjacent to this park, and that is noAv the State laAv. 
Consequently Ave haA'e the finest herd of deer in the Avhole country in 
that park and nobody can kill the deer. 

Mr. Peters. I can almost guarantee that it Avill be done in Maine. 
Mr. Tillman. The fact that you have game in Maine at this time, 
one of the oldest States of the Union, goes to show that the senti- 
ment Avould be in favor of that. 

Mr. Dorr. AVhen this Avas created as a monument there Avas a 
movement started in Bar Harbor, Avith Avhich I had nothing to 
do myself, to make the Avhole island into a bird sanctuary, and it 
met Avith very active support. The Avomen's clubs have interested 
themselves in that question, and I think that if the monument be 
made into a park that ultimately the Avhole island can be made into 
a bird sanctuary. 

Mr. Peters. There is no doubt about that. 

Mr. McClintic. The game on the island, especially the moose and 
deer, ought to be protected, and no doubt just a little suggestion to 
the State legislature Avill bring about the desired result. 

Mr. Peters. The moose are protected, because there is a perpet- 
ually closed season in the Avhole State. 

Mr. Tillman. They outght not to be killed on the island during 
any part of the year. 

Mr. Peters. That is quite right. 

Mr. Dorr. I Avant the Avhole island to become a game sanctuary. 
Mr. Peters. I am A^ery much obliged to you gentlemen for your at- 
tention this morning, and especially on this day. I understand that 
I have your permission to include in the record certain printed mat- 
ter relating to the Mount Desert National Park project. 



24 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PAEK. 

(Here follows this printed matter:) 
Thereupon the subcommittee adjourned. 

OFt-ER TO THE GOVKRXMENT. 

May 3, 191G. 
Hon. Franklin K. Lane, 

Secretary of the Interior. 
I Woshiiif/to>}. I). C. 

.Sir : On behalf of the Hancock County trustees of public reservations, State 
of Maine, I have the honor to offer in free gift to the United States a unique 
and noble tract of land upon our eastern seacoast, for the establishment of a 
national monument. 

The tract offered is rich in liistoric association, in scientific interest, and in 
landscape beaut.v. And it contains within itself the only heights that immedi- 
ately front the open sea with mountainous character upon our eastern coast. 

It contains also, owing to past glacial action and its own variously resistant 
rocky structure, an extraordinary variety of topographic feature which unites 
with the climate caused by the surrounding sea to fit it beyond any other 
single locality in the East for the shelter, growth, and permanent preservation 
of a wide range of life, both plant and animal. 

It forms a striking and instructive geologic record. And it constitutes the 
dominant and characteristic portion of the first land. Moun Desert Island, to be 
visited, described, and named by Chaniplain when sailing under De Monts's 
orders in exploration of the New England coast. 

The papers I inclose herewith explain in detail the thought and purpose of 
the offered gift, with the reasons which have led us to the conviction of its ex- 
ceptional public value and worthiness to be accepted. 

I remain, sir, with respect, 
Sincerely yours, 

George Bucknam Dorr. 



First Public Announcement of the Plan to Form a National Park Upon 
Mount Desert Island. 

[Taken fiojn the Eigliteeuth Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historic Preser- 
vation Society, New York, 191o.] 

The society has been consulted recently with regard to the general purpose 
of summer residents upon the coast of Maine to offer the Federal Government 
in the near futui-e a superb tract of land for a national park on the beautiful 
island of Mount Desert, where the grand coast scenery of the region culmi- 
nates and whose early dlscovei-y and occupation by the French confer on it ex- 
ceptional human interest. 

Mount Desert Island, which is about 13 miles wide by 16 long, is a boldly 
uplifted mass of ancient rock lying off the central part of the Maine coast, iii 
latitude 40° 20' north and longitude 68° 20' west. It is inclosed on either side 
by noble bays and diversified remarkably by mountains, lakes, and inlets of 
the sea, the highest elevation on it. Green Mountain, being 1,527 feet high. It 
is famous as a summer resort. 

A few years ago a group of summer residents there incorporated themselves 
under the title of the Hancock County trustees of public reservations, with the 
(►bject of acquiring and holding for the public lands important to it on Mount 
Desert Island and in the region round about it. President f^meritus Charles 
W. Eliot, of Harvard University, became president of the association and Mr. 
George B. Don-, of Boston, vice president and executive officer; while such 
men as Bishop William Lawrence, of Massachusetts, Dr. S. AVeir Mitchell, of 
Philadelphia, and Messrs. John S. Kennedy, David B. Ogden, Henry Lane Eno. 
and Dr. Robert Abbe, of New York City, have taken active interest in the 
association's work. 

The association now holds between 5,000 and 6.000 acres upon the island in 
r)ne continuous reservation, including its highest mountain peaks and the 
greater portion of the watershed of the lakes between them from which the 
water supplies of its residential parts are chiefly drawn. The area also in- 
cludes much forest land, with deep valleys which offer admirable shelter for 
wild life, open marshes and pools suitable for wading and aquatic birds, streams 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 25 

on which beavers formerly built their dams and which would make fit homes 
for them again, and the best opportunity along the whole Maine coast for 
preserving and exhibiting the native flora. The latter comprises, besides 
characteristic trees and shrubs, interest uig plants and wild flowers which — 
like the iNIayflower and the wild orchids of the region — are liable to be ex- 
terminated as the coast becomes more thickly settled unless protected in such 
shelters. 

As opportunity to do so at reasonable cost shall offer, the association hopes 
to increase its ownership till it includes the whole range at Champlain's 
" Monts deserts," from 12 to 15 miles in length, which extends across the 
island — offering magnificient views of sea and land — together with the lakes 
and uiarshes and the one deep fiord on out Atlantic coast which lie among them. 
The completion of this purpose will create a wild park of remarkable beauty, 
unique character and great ■ variety of landscape feature, and one that will 
afford exceptional opportunity for wild-life protection. 

To assui'e the permanence of such a park and place it under a control whose 
ability to take full advantage of the opportunities it offers and whose sole 
interest in the public good shall be established on the surest footing, it is 
proposed to convey it to the Federal Government as a gift to the Nation. From 
the national point of view, this is an opportunity of unusual advantage. The 
mountain range on the island is not only exceedingly bold but its mountains are 
the only ones south of Labrador on the Atlantic coast, with the exception of a 
few lower peaks — such as the Gouldsboro and Camden Hills — in its vicinity. 
From the higher summits of these mountains one looks out over forty or more 
miles of sea to the horizon, while the ancient granite masses which compose 
them have been shaped by ice-sheet grinding into forms of striking pictur- 
esqueness. 

In view of the unique landscape character and exceptional beauty of the tract 
intended ; in view of the fact that no other opportunity for the establishment 
of a national park upon our north Atlantic coast is ever likely to present itself, 
or can so favorably ; and in view of its accessibility by land and sea from the 
great eastern centers of population and the rapidity with which these centers 
are growing and the wild regions of the country losing wildness, it can scarce 
be doubted that the Government will avail itself of the generosity of the donors 
and accept the splendid gift when it is offered. 



SlEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT. 
OKOKGE BUCKXAM DORR. 



This area, not a purchase by the Government Init a gift from citizens, in- 
cludes the mountainous and finest landscape portion of Mount Desert Island 
on the coast of Maine, whose crowning glory in a resort and scenic sense tnat 
island is and has been for the last half century. 

Technically termed a monument ))ecause created by the President and Sec- 
retary of the Interior under the authority given them l)y the so-called monu- 
ments act of 1906 and because of its historic interest, it is by nature, beauty, 
and resort importance a true national park in every popular sense and destined 
when developed to become one of the most widely visited and recreationally 
iiseful park areas on the continent. 

:S ***** * 

Beautiful as it is in other ways, this is its unique possession, that it is the 
only tract of national-park land in the country offering to its visitors the re- 
freshment, the ever-varying interest and beauty and the limitless expanses of 
the ocean— in contrast to the magnificent domains of mountain lands, western 
or eastern, that its companion parks may offer. 

Physically, the Sieur de Monts National :Monument is a bold range of sea- 
ward-facing granite hills, extraordinarily mountainous in character and won- 
derful in the variety, the interest and beauty of the climbs they offer, one 
onlv but the highest", rising from the border of the ocean over 1,500 feet, offers 
opiio'rtimitv for road construction. When, sooner or later, such a road— one 
bv no means difficult to build— shall be constructed, restoring along a better 
route the old buckboard i-oad which formerly let up to a hotel upon the summit, 



26 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

it will become at once, with modern motor travel, one of the yreat scenic fea- 
tures of the Continent. As one ascends, superb views of land diversified by 
lakes and bays and stretching far away to distant hills, disclose themselves 
successively, and when one reaches the summit, the masniticent ocean view 
that opens suddenly before one is a sight few places in the world can parallel. 
The vastness of the ocean seen from such a height, its beauty both in calm 
and storm, and its appeal to the imagination yield nothing even to the boldest 
mountain landscape, while the presence of that cool iiorthei-n sea, surging back 
and forth and deeply penetrating the land with its great tidal flood, gives the 
air a stimulating and refreshing (luality comparable only to that found else- 
where upon alpine heights. And as on alpine heights the herbaceous plants 
that shelter their life beneath the groiuid in winter bloom with brilliaucy and 
flourish with a vigor rarely found elsewhere, so here the ocean presence and 
long northern days of sunnner sun combine with the keen air to make the gar- 
dens of the Island famous and the national parklands singularly fitted to serve 
as a magnificent wild garden ami plant sanctuary, at once preserving and exhib- 
iting the native plants and wild flowers of the Acadian region which the mon- 
ument so strikingly represents. 

This native quality of the place is noted, curiously, in (iov. Winthi-op's 
Journal, when he came sailing by one early sunnner day in 1630 on his way 
to Salem, bringing its charter to the Massachusetts colony whose governor he 
was to be. and found " fair sunshine weather and so pleasant a sweet air as 
did much refresh us; and there came a smell fnmi off the .shore like the smell 
of a garden." 

As a bird sanctuary, too. these parklands. placed as they are directly on the 
great natural migration route of the Atlantic shore and widely various in 
favorable cliaracter, need proper guardianship only to become a singularly 
useful instrument in l)ird life conservation, while adding not a little through 
the presence of the birds to their own interest and charm. 

Geologically, the monument, with its adjacent coastal rocks and headlands, 
forms a wonderful exhibit. Essentially, it is a bold and rugged group of 
granite peaks, innnensely old though far less ancient than the primeval sea-laid 
rocks — hard, bent and twisted sands and clays — up through which they are 
thrust. These peaks, geologists say. united into a single mass, once bore an 
alpine height upon their shoulders which looked across wide valley lands to- 
ward a distant sea. Time beyond count laid bare the mountain base, which the 
slow southward grinding of the ice-sheet later trenched into dozen deeply 
isolated peaks. Between them, hollows, deeiier than the i)resent level of the 
sea in places, now contain a number of beautiful fi"esh-water lakes and one 
magnificent fjord which nearly cuts the isl;ind into two. Finally, owing to 
a general subsidence along the coast, the sea swept inland, flooding round the 
ice-eroded remnant of the ancient mountain to form the largest rock-built 
island on the Atlantic shore from the St. I^awivnce southward, and its highest 
elevation. 

In i)laces on the island's .southern shore, the granite comes down to the 
ocean front, forming the boldest headlands and thrusting out to meet tlie sea's 
attack the grandest storm swept rocks upon our coast ; in other places, the 
inclosing sedimentary rocks, hardened by the enormous heat and pressure 
caused by the grtudtic upburst, oppose the ocean with dark, furrowed cliffs of 
different chai'acter but ecpially magnificent, in shine or .storm. 

The whole Acadian region of eastern Maine, which the Sieur de Monts 
National Monument represents with rare completeness in a single tract of con- 
centrated interest, is rich in delightful features, in forests, lakes and streams, 
and the wild life of every kind — plant, animal and fish — that haunts them. 
Its value as a vast recreative area for the whole nation to the eastward of the 
Itockies is even yet but little realized, although from the first opening of the 
fishing season in the spring to the close of hunting in the fall an immense tide 
of recreative travel streams continually through it. 

The new National Monument, and future Park as it will doubtless be. lies — 
with all the added beatify of the ocean and interest of historic association — 
close besifle the main entrance to this region, where the Penobscot mingles its 
fresh water with the sea. From the Monument, delightful trips by train, by 
boat, by motor, may be made on every side — up and down the coast ; to New 
Brunswick, Cape Breton and Nova Scotia ; or to the magnificent lake and 
forest regions of the interior. And to it, one may come, as to no other national 
park area on the continent, by boat as well as train or motor. 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 27 

Tht^ chapter of world history which the Sieur de Monts National Monument 
coninieniorates, that of the first founding of Acadia, in 1604 — half a genera- 
tion before the landing of the Pilgram Fathers on the Massachusetts shore, 
and of the long French occupation of the Acadian region, extending from the 
Kennebec to Cape Breton, which followed it, is full of human interest as 
told in the pages of Champlain and Lescarbot in quaint old French, and bj' 
numerous later writers. 

De Monts. a Huguenot of noble family in southwestern France, came out 
commissioned by Henry IV — Henry of Navarre — to occupy for France, and 
colonize, " the lands and territory called Acadia," extending, as it was then 
defined, from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of latitude — those approxi- 
mately of Philadelphia and Montreal to-day ; to establish friendly trade rela- 
tions with its natives ; to explore its coasts and rivers ; to govern it, and rep- 
resent in it and on its seas the person of the King; and to bring its people, 
" barbarous and without faith in God." into knowledge and practice of the 
Christian religion. 

It was a great adventure, largely conceived and bravely carried out. De 
Monts planted the fleur-de-lis on the American shore, and for more than a cen- 
tury and a half it stayed there. That it is not floating there to-day is due to 
foi-ces greater than national, to the growth of the democratic spirit and demo- 
cratic principles of government in the English colonies, which gave them an in- 
herent power that mounted like a rising tide till it possessed and overflowed 
their continent, and is to-day profoundly influencing the world. 

« * * * * * * 

Sailing fnmi De Monts' fir.st colony at the mouth of the St. Croix — our pres- 
ent national boundary — to explore the westward coast. Champlain made his first 
landing within this country's limits on Mount Desert Lsland, close to Bar Har- 
bor probably, on its seaward side — wherever he first found safe beaching or 
good mooring for his damaged boat, stove on a hidden rock, he says, on enter- 
ing Frenchmans Bay. 

Chiimplain describes the mountains of the monument as he saw them then, 
with deep, dividing gorges and bare rocky summits, and named the island from 
them, giving it, in a French form, the name which it still bears, the " Isle 'des 
Monts Deserts." • ^ 



The Coast of Maine. 
By Charles Eliot. 

From Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, the broad en- 
trance of the Gulf of Maine is 200 miles wide, and it is 100 miles across from 
each of these capes to the corresponding end of the Maine coast at Kittery and 
Quoddy. Thus, Maine squarely faces the gulf's wide seaward opening, while 
to the east and west, beyond her bounds, stretch its two great offshoots, the 
Bavs of Fundy and of Massachusetts. The latter and lesser bay presents a 
soiith shore, built mostly of sands and gravels, in bluffs and beaches, and a 
north shore of bold and enduring rocks — both already overgrown with seaside 
hotels and cottages. The Bay of Fundy, on the other hand.' is little resorted 
to as yet for pleiisure ; its shores in many parts are grandly high and bold, but 
its waters are moved by such rushing tides and its coasts are so frequently 
v.-raiiped in fog that it will doubtles long remain a comparatively unfrequented 
region. 

Along the coast of Maine scenery and climate change from the Massacluisetts 
to the Fundy type. At Boston the average temperature of July is 70°; at 
Eastport it is 61°. No such coolness is to be found along the Atlantic coast 
from Cape Cod southward, and this summer freshness of the air must always be 
an irresistible attraction to many thousand dwellers in hot cities. Again, in con- 
trast with the lo\V beaches farther south, the scenery of the Maine coast is 
exceedingly interesting and refreshing. The mere' map of it is most attrac- 
tive. From the Piscataqua River, a deep estuary whose swift tides flow 
through an archipelago of rocks and lesser islands, to Cape Elizabeth, a broad 
wedge of rock pushed out to sea as though to mark the entrance to Portland 
Harbor, the coast is already rich in varied scenery ; but there another type, 
wilder, iiiore intricate and picturesque, begins. Casco Bay. with its many 
branches running inland and its seaward-.stretching peninsulas and islands, is 



28 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

the first of a succession of bays, thoroughfares, and reaches wliich line the coast 
almost unceasingly to Quoddy. The mainland becomes lost behind a maze of 
^^ ;p?.v .v/"^f"'^'?i "'^ -Tfl '^''^'^' Pe^^trates by deep and narrow channels into 
lie Aery woods, ebbs iind flows in and out of hundreds of lonelv, unfrequented 
liarbors. discovers countless hidden nooks and coves. Sand beaches become 
rare, and great and small "sea walls" of rounded stones or pebbles take their 
P ace Except at Mount Desert, great cliffs occur, but seldom untU G S 
Manan is reached, while mountains come down only to the open sea at Mount 
Desert ; but the variety of lesser topographic forms is great 

The general aspect of the coast is wild and untamable, an effect due 
partly to its own rocky character aud storm-swept ledges, l)ut vet more 
to the changed character of the coastal vegetation. Bevond (^abe Eliza- 
beth capes and islands are wooded, if at all. with the dark, stiff cresting of 
spruce and hr, interspersed perhaps with pine and fringed by birch and 
mountain ash. One by one familiar species disappear as the coast is traversed 
eastward, aud northern forms replace them. The red pine first appears on 
Massachusetts Bay, the gray pine at Mount Desert; the Arbor-vitae is first 
met with near Kennebec; the balsam fir and the black and white spruces 
show tliemselves nowhere to the south of Cape Ann, nor do they abound until 
Cape Elizabeth is passed. It is these somber coniferous woods crowding to 
the water's edge along the rugged shore which give the traveler his strong- 
impression of a wild subarctic land where strange Indian names— Pemaquid 
Megunticook, Eggemoggin, or Schoodic— are altogether fitting. 

The human story of the coast of Maine is almost as picturesque and varied 
as its secenery. The coast was first explored by Samuel de Champlain, whose 
narative of his adventure is still delightful reading. Fruitless attempts at 
settlement followed, led by French knights at St. Croix, French Jesuits at 
Mount Desert, and English cavaliers at Sagadahock ; all of them years in 
advance of the English colony at New Plymouth. Then followed a long period 
of fishing and fur trading, during which Maine belonged to neither New France 
nor New England. Rival Frenchmen fought and besieged each other in truly 
feudal fashion at Penobscot and St. John. The numerous French names oL 
the eastern coast bear witness still to the long French occupation there ; as, for 
instance. Grand and Petit Manan, Bois Bubert, Monts Deserts and Isle au 
Hault, and Burnt Coat— English apparently, but really a mistranslation of 
the French. Cote Brule. 

No Englishmen settled east of the Penobscot until after the capture of 
Quebec; when they did, more fighting followed in the wars of the Revo- 
lution and of 1812. The settlers fished and hunted, cut hay on the salt marshes, 
and timber in the great woods; then, in later times, took to shipbuilding. 
These, the occupations of a wild and timbered coast, still form its business 
in great part. The fisheries are an abiding resource and fleets of more than 
two hundred graceful vessels may be often seen in port together, waiting the 
end of a storm. Hunting is carried on at certain seasons in the eastern 
counties, where deer are numerous, and innumerable inland lakes and streams 
are full of trout. The large pines and spruces of the shore woods have long 
since been cut, but Bangor still sends down the Penobscot a fleet of lumber 
schooners, loaded from the interior, every time the wind blows from the north. 

It was In the early sixties that what may be called the discovery of tne 
picturesqueness, the wild beauty and refreshing character of the Maine coast took 
place. Then, through the resort to it of a few well-known landscape painters, 
the poor hamlet of Bar Harbor leaped into sudden fame and it became evi- 
dent that the whole coast had an important destiny before it as a resort ana 
summer home. Now, summer hotels are scattered all along its shores to 
Frenchmans Bay, and colonies of summer villas already occupy many of the 
more accessible capes and islands. 

The spectacle of thousands upon thousands of people spending annually 
.several weeks or months of summer in healthful life by the seashore is 
very pleasant, but there is danger lest this human flood -so overflow and 
occupy the limited stretch' of coast which it invades as to rob it of that 
flavor of wildness which hitherto has constituted its most refreshing charm. 
Yet it is not the tide of life itself, abundant though it be, which can work 
the scene such harm. A surf-beaten headland may be crowned by a light- 
house tower without losing its dignity and impresslveness ; a lonely fiord 
shut in by dark woods, where the fog lingers in wreaths as it comes and 
goes, still may make its strong imaginative appeal when fishermen build 
their huts upon its shore and ply their trade. But the inescapable presence 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 29 

Of a life, an architecture and a landscape architecture alien to the spirit of 
the place may take from it an inspirational and recreative value for work- 
weaned men no economic terms can measure. 

The United States have but this one short stretch of Atlantic seacoast 
where a pleasant summer climate and real picturesqueness of scenery are 
to be found together; can nothing be done to preserve for the use and 
enjoyment of the great body of the people in the centuries to come some 
fine parts at least of this seaside wilderness of Maine? 



The Geology of Mount Desert. 

Condensed from a Government report by Nathaniel S. Shaler and later study 
by William Morris Davis. 

[Statement approved by the U. S. Geological Survey.] 

The mountains of the Mount Desert Range are by far the highest of the 
many mountainous hills that rise above the rolling lowland of southern and 
southeastern Maine. Long ago this lowland, far more extensive seaward then, 
was tilted toward the south until its southern portion passed beneath the 
ocean, to form the platform of the Gulf of Maine, while its northern portion 
gradually ascended inland till it finally took on in the interior the character of 
a plateau. The tilted lowland, in the portion that remained above the ocean 
level, liecame scored by numerous stream-cut valleys, following down its gentle 
slope toward the sea ; since these were excavated the coastal region has again 
been slightly lowered, carrying the .whole shore line farther inland, changing 
many a land valley into a long sea arm and isolating many a hilltop as an 
outlying island. Associated with this later change of level there came a period 
of arctic climate which covered the region with a deep sheet of ice such as 
that which holds possession now of Greenland — then less arctic than New Eng- 
land possibly. The slow southward and seaward flow of this vast mass of 
frozen water stripped from the land its ancient soil, wore down the hills, 
deepened the valleys, and pushed the accumulated debris before it to form the 
present fishing banks upon the ancient coastal plain, the Cape Cod sands, and 
the deep gravels of Long Island, besides blocking on its way the course of in- 
numerable streams and damming them to create the myriad lakes and meadow- 
lands which make Maine famous now is one of the greatest inland fishing 
regions in the world. 

The lowland from which the mountainous hills of Maine rise up is not, like 
the coastal lowlands to the southward of Cape Cod, a recently emerged sea bot- 
tom, still for the most part as smooth as when the ocean covered it. It is low 
in spite of having been strongly uplifted long ago ; it is low because the ancient 
alpine heights that occupied it once have been worn down by age-long de- 
nudation and have slowly wasted away under the ceaseless attack of the at- 
mosphere. 

The boldly uplifted range of :Mount Desert is one of the most stubborn sur- 
vivors of that' ancient highland, and the beauty of the island as seen from the 
sea, unparalleled along our whole Atlantic coast, is due to its persistent reten- 
tion of some portion of the height which the whole region once had but which 
nearly every other part of it has lost. 

Although the noble granitic I'ocks that form this range rest quiet and cold 
, in their age to-day, they were once hot and energetic, pressing their way up- 
ward, as a vast molten mass, toward — and overflowing possibly — the ancient 
surface of the land. The massive granite stretches east and west across the 
island, inclosed wherever the attack of ice or sea has failed to lay it bare by 
rocks of a wholly different origin and character. At first these other rocks 
are seen as isolated fragments included in the granite ; the fragments then be- 
come more frequent until solid rock of their own type, strangely twisted and 
contorted, begins to take the granite's place, as in the wonderful displays at 
Great Head and Hunters Beach Head ; further on, the granite is only seen 
penetrating these other rocks in long, narrow crevices, as on Sutton Island ; at 
last it ceases entirely, and the rocky floor, wherever it can be observed, is wholly 
formed by rocks like those first seen as fragments caught and frozen in the cool- 
ing granite. Near the margin of its area, again, the granite is finer textured 



30 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 

than where erosion has hiiil bare its ancient depths, as in tlie mountain gorges; 
for it is the way of igneous, or fire-formed, rocks when crystallizing from a mol- 
ten state to develop smaller crystals and finer texture near their boundaries, 
where the cooling is more rapid. 

This fine texture of the margin of the granite, the inclusion of angular and 
freshly broken fragments of the regional rocks within its borders, and the 
penetration of the regional rocks themselves by narrowing granitic arms oi- 
dikes, clearly show that the granite is the later comer, and that it came molten, 
breaking its way witli ti-emendous power into the ancient rocky crust under 
some vast, compelling pressure ; at last, when the impelling forces were satis- 
fied, it came to a halt and slowly froze into a rigid mass, holding in its 
grasp innumerable fragments gathered fi-om the rent and fractured walls. 
who.se cracks it fills. 

This granitic outburst is the greatest event in the geological liistory of 
Mount Desert. It was of colossal magnitude. The energy of its intrusion 
can not be conceived. Not that the intrusion was suddenly accomplished, for 
no conjecture can be made as to the time it took, l)ut that it was effected against 
enormous resistances and involved the movement of gigantic masses. 

The granite mass disclosed in these aticient monuments of the geologic past 
is at least a dozen miles in length and four or five in breadth at widest, with 
roots far wider spread beneath the level of the present surface. No one can 
give a measure of the greater height to \yhich it once ascended, and he would 
be a daring geologist who would set a limit to the unsounded depths from 
which it rose. The uprising may have required many histoi-ic ages; it may have 
been lelatively rapid; l)Ut that it was progressive, not instantaneous, is clearly 
to i)e seen upon examination of the granite margins. 

The bare ledges and cliffs of the southeastern coast esjjecially afford won- 
derfully clear illustrarions of rlie molten s'tone's intrusive processes. Here we 
may follow tlie upward-driven granite forcing its way into narrowing cracks 
among the older rocks; there gi'eat fragments of the older rocks have been 
caught up in it and partly melted by its heat perhaps. Sometimes a block of 
the ancient regional stone may l)e seen divided liy granite-filled fissures whose 
fractured walls can still be matched with certainty, striking instances of 
which are shown on the eastern side in the narrows of the Somes Sound fiord. 
The now rigid granite then yielded so perfectly under the heat and tremendous 
pressures acting on it as to penetrate the narrowest cracks and crevices, fol- 
lowing them down to hairlike fineness. Nowhere in the world, indeed, may the 
geologist or traveler find better or more impressive illustration of the manifold 
processes of deep-seated intrusion than on the wave-swept ledges of the island's 
southern coast between Somes Sound and Frenchmans Bay. 



Thp: Woods of Mount Desekt 

By Edward L. Hand, Secretary of the New England Botanical S'-.-iety and 
author of " The Flora of Mount Desert" 

Mount Desert Island has an area of over 100 square miles. The ocean 
surges against it on the south; lu-oad bays inclose it on the east and west; and 
at its northernmost extremity a narrow pn-iage only separates it from the 
mainland. Its outline is very irregular. i;.\e that of the Elaine coast in general, 
with harbors and indentations everywhere. The largest of these. Somes Sound, 
a long, deep fiord running far into the land between mountainous shores, nearly 
bisects the island. There are some 13 mountains — bare rocky sunnnits varying 
in height up to over l.oOO feet and lying in a great belt from east to west; 
between them deep, blue lakes are sunk in rocky beds. To the north, the north- 
west, and the southeast the surface — of a different geologic structure — is I'ela- 
tively flat, with lower and more undulating hills and broad stretches of 
meaclowland iind marsh. On the southeast and east the mountains approach 
closely to the shore, ending in a coast of precipitous cliffs and bold, rocky 
headlands that has long been famous. Nowhere else on the Atlantic coast is 
there such a wonderful combination of natural scenery as this island possesses ; 
nowhere is there another spot where shore and mountain are so grandly 
blenf.:>!l. For yer.rs it has been i-enowned as the crowning glory of the beauti- 
ful, countless-harbored coast of Maine. 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 31 

The foi-ests of Mount Desert Island were once full of wealth, and full of 
wealth they still would be if the lumbermen had not done their work so well. 
Hi^h up on the mountain sides, through the mountain gorges, along the borders 
of the lakes and streams, everywhere to the water's edge, the great trees grow- 
ing on the thin but rich wood soil were taken out, as one mav plainly see bv 
their huge rotting stumps to-day. The importance of preserving the woods 
which still i-emain no lover of Nature can question. They are infinitely precious 
as a part of the wild scenery of the place and for their wonderful attraction 
to the city-wearied man or woman in search- of a summer home and resting 
place. 

What the island was in the early days of its primeval beauty, when Cham- 
plain sailed along its shore ami for a century after, lies far beyond the pos- 
sibility of conjecture now. Yet some idea of what these woods once were may 
still be gained from a few favored spots where portions of the ancient forest 
yet remain, and much of their original beauty may be brought back if steps 
are taken to preserve them now and protect from consuming forest tires the 
all-important humus in their soil. 



Mount Desekt Island as a Plant Sanctuary. 

By M. L. Fer.nald. Professor of Botany at Harvard University, Curator of the 
Cray Herliarium. Former President New England Botanical Society. 

One of the commonest sights in the wilder districts of our once densely tim- 
bered eastei-n States is vast stretclies of burned and wasted land, desolate and 
unproductive. 

Now, nearly all the native plants wliicli originally inhabited these de.solated 
areas have a ])eculiarly modified root-structure which renders it impossible for 
them to grow in any soil other than the moist and spoiTgelike forest humus, to 
life in which their whole development has been shaped for ages past. 

The immediate effect, then, of tlie removal of the forest and burning over of 
its leafy floor is the complete annihilation of countless lesser plants, wild 
flowers, and ferns in hundreds of beautiful and interesting species which give 
the iM'imeval forest of the region its great natural charm. 

The evil does not stop, however, with the destruction of the native woods and 
wild flowers and the gradually accumulated wealth of woodland soil. Nature's 
iinciently established equilil)i'iiim is distuii)e(l at its foundation, and the native 
insects, associated from the beginning with the native flowering plants and 
rear(^!y hurtful to the farme;-, i>erish largely with the vegetation and the soil 
that they, have lived and bred upon, leavhig the field clear for the invasion of 
destructive foreign species. 

The birds, in turn, who feed upon the native insects and control the balance 
of insect increase, no longer find their ftn-mer food supply or shelter, and either 
vanish from the wasted region or continue in diminished numbers. 

]Much of the land thus wrecked by axe and fire in the well-watered eastern 
portion of our country nuist ultimately be reclothed with forest as its best 
economic use, and none can be so well adapted to it as that which nature 
clothed it with originally, rich alike- in beauty and in valuable species. But»it 
will be long before such land again develops the humus covering the native 
forest flora and its associatetl life require, and unless prompt measures are 
taken to conserve them till it does, the task of resettling future forests with the 
rich, indigenous life that is the region's own will have become iinpossiI)le. 

It has, therefore, long seemed to the writer that the only way in which to 
conserve for the enjoyment and study of future generations any portions of our 
country which by good fortune still remain in their natural condition is the 
reservation of appropriate tracts, such as may properly be set aside, with the 
explicit stipulation that they be left essentially in their natural state. 

This lirings me to the crucial point: Where is the best spot, if only a single 
.spot can be thus jireserved, for the perfection of this ideal? A detailed know- 
ledge of the geography, the flora, and to some extent the soil conditions of east- 
ern North America, acquired through twenty-five years of active exploration in 
New England, the ^Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labrador, 
naturally brings several regions to mind ; but as a single area within the pos- 
sible reach of this hope, the Island of Mount Desert, with its adjacent islets and 
headlands, stands out as offering the greatest natural diversity. 



32 MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PAEK. 

That comes obvimisly from the fact tliat Mount Desert is the highest land on 
the Atlantic coast of North America south of tlie Gulf of St. Lawrence, its 
boldly sculptured hills, which rise directly from the water's edge, attaining 
altitudes of almost montane cliaracter. 

The exposed headlands and bogs of the Mount Desert rejjion support be- 
tween two and three hundred species of phmts which are typical of the arctic, 
subarctic, and Hudsonian regions of America, and which on the eastern coast 
of New England or the alpine .summits of the White Mountains i-each their 
actual or approxhuate southern limits — such i)lants, for instance, as tlie Black 
Crowberry, Enii>etnnii nigrum ; the Baked-apple Berry, Rubun Chnniaeiiiorus : 
the Creeping Juniper. .Junipern.<< harisoutalis : the (Jreenland Sandwort, Are- 
narkt (irocnhtmJicd : the Rose-i*oot, Sediini rosnini : and the Banksian Pine.. 
Pinus Banlxsiann. 

But the flora of the Mount Desert region is not by any means entirely arctic 
or subarctic. There we find essentially all the common plants of the Canadian 
zone, and mingling with them in sheltered nooks and meadows or on warm 
slopes, many scores of plants which xeach their extreme northern or north- 
eastern limit on Mount Desert or the inmiediate coast — such plants as the 
Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida; the Bear Oak, Quercus iUcifoUa ; the Sweet Pepper- 
bush, Clethra alnifolia; the Swamp Loosestrife, Decodon verticiUatits; the 
Meadow Beauty, Rhexia virginica; and the Maple-leaved Viburnum, Viburnum 
acerifoHum. 

This extraordinary accumulation within one small area of the typical 
plants of the arctic realm, of the Canadian zone, and in many cases of the 
southern coastal plain, can not be duplicated at any point known to the writer. 

In its rock and soil composition Mount De.sert offers a most attractive pos- 
sibility. Much of tlie island consists of granite rocks, with the consequent acid 
soils that these give rise to; but the soils derived from some of the metamorphic 
series, slates and shales, are, judging from the native vegetation, of a basic or 
even limy character, and many of the swam])s are covered not with the heath 
thickets of acid bogs- but with the characteristic grasses and spdges of 
sweet areas. 

A number of the island plants, indeed, sometimes of rock habitats, sometimes 
of swamps, suggest themselves at on'ce as species which, in their wide range, 
.show a strong preference for sweet or limy habitats — the Shrubby Cinquefoil, 
Potentilla fruticosa; the Showy Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium Mrsutum; the 
Hemlock Parsley, Conioselinum chiriense, are instances. 

These features alone are sufficient to indicate the remarkable possibilities 
for the future if a tract like jNIount Desert, unique upon our coast in physical 
configui-ation as in beauty, can be presei-ved from the destruction of its natural 
charm by the judicious guarding of what it now possesses and the reintrodnc- 
tion of what it has lost, or lost presumably, both plants and animals. • 

The fame of the island as the playground, habitual or occasional of a vast 
and highly intelligent portion of our population, also renders it remarkably 
appropriate for such a natural reservation ; and should such a reservation be 
established there, with due emphasis laid upon the maintenance or redevelop- 
ment of natural and indigenous conditions, its influence ui^on the intelligent 
people of America will be indeed far-reaching. For it is inconceivable that 
lovers of nature could enjoy such an ideal area, with its unmolested wild 
flowers, ferns, birds, and liarmless animals, and with the full beauty of nature 
everywhere displayed, without desiring and providing a similar blessing — ac- 
cording to the varied opportunities that offer — for themselves, their children, 
and their children's children in other portions of the continent. 



Natukal Bird Gardens on Mount Desert Island. 

Edward Howe Forbush, Massachusetts State Ornithologist, Author of " Useful 
Birds and Their Protection," a book placed by order of the Massachu.setts 
Legislature in every Public Library and High School in the State ; Author of 
" Game Birds and Wild Fowl." 

Mount Desert Island, unique in being the only mountainous tract thrust 
prominently out into the sea and rich in meadow lands and valleys, offers an 
important landmark and admirable resting place for migratory birds of every 
kind — birds of sea and shore, the useful insect-eating birds of cultivated lands 
and gardens, the birds of inland waters, woods, and marshes. 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PAEK. 33 

The faiiiui iind lloni of the coast line at this point are largely of the Canadian 
type and its birds are represented here with corresponding fnllness. Never- 
theless, a number of Hudsonian plants grow upon the island also and form 
breeding places for certain birds characteristic of that northern area. This is 
one of the ver.\ few points on the Atlantic coast of the United States where por- 
tions of this far northern flora and faima can be found at all, and it is the 
southernmost of all. 

Following the coast up from the west and south, a number of the birds of 
the Alleghenian and transition zones reach the island also, and we thus find 
at least four faunal areas represented in summer at this unique spot, while a 
nunil)er of Arctic and other northern birds frequent the region in winter, at 
which season the Alaskan eagle and the snowy owl appear. 

llemarkable opportunities exist here, accordingly, for inducing birds of many 
kinds to remain and nest upon the island, where they can be fostered, studied, 
and protected. For the birds of farm and garden it offers conditions that 
might readily be made ideal in certain sections. The forest cover, with its 
under shrulis. provides admirable nesting places for all woodland species. For 
the i)irds of inland and of tidal waters the place is singularly favorable, while 
the vertical cliffs yet call to nest the raven and the eagle. 

No northern situation was ever better fitted to grow a great variety of fruit- 
ing plants for bird food. The remarkable horticultural qualities of the island 
have long been recognized, and both wild and cultivated shrubs fruit there in 
extraordinary profusion. In the broad heath which extends from the Bar Har- 
bor region southward to the mountains ; in the wild gorge beyond with bottom 
tarn which makes a natural highway for men and birds alike between the 
island's northern and southern shores; and around fhe old beaver-pool ground 
out by the ice-sheet at the northern foot of Newport Mountain, there are won- 
derful opportunities for natural bird gardens. 

Here, in fertile soil washed down from the granite heights above and con- 
stantly renewed, open spaces may readily be covered with the native food- 
providing shrubs and trees, such as the alternate-leaved cornel, the wild service 
berry or shad blow which is so beautiful in its springtime flowering, the red- 
berried ilexes and richly fruiting thorns that bring such glowing color into the 
northern fall, interspersed with thick bushes suital)le for nesting. 

Here, too, there are excellent opportunities for growing along the banks of 
streams and ponds the seed-bearing herbaceous plants on which the marsh and 
water birds subsist so largely, and an admirable chance for creating nesting 
islands upon flooded marshlands that would foriu ideal breeding places for 
meadow and aquatic birds. Water in every form is here abundant — in springs 
and streams and open pools — while the deep, rich soils of the adjoining swamp 
and swale already produces plants in plenty to entice the birds that haunt such 
places, and little more is needed than to give these plants a chance to make 
their best development. 

And here, of all places, an admirable opportunity presents itself for the estab- 
lishment of a bird-study station combined with bird protection, such as has 
revolutionized abroad iu recent years the methods formerly in use for the en- 
couragement and protection of bird life. 

****** ^: 

Work along this line is greatly needed in America, and carried out at Mount 
Desert, where so strong a tide of summer travels sets each year and where so 
many people of influence and education, drawn from the whole country over, 
spend their summers, such work would have exceptional value. 



THE ACADIAN FOEEST. 

George B. Dorr. 

The Acadian forest, using the word Acadian in its early French sense, stretched 
dense and unbroken iu de Monts' and Champlain's time over the wide coastal 
territory now occupied by eastern Maine, by Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. 
Plundered of its wealth and existing but in fragments now, no forest of a tem- 
perate zone clothes with more vigorous growth the laud it occupies, none has 
greater charm or shelters a wild life more interesting. 

This forest is typically represented, with singular completeness, upon Mount 
Desert Island, where land and sea conditions meet and whei'e a unique topog- 

64235— IS 3 



34 MOUN^T DESEET NATIONAL PARK. 

raphj- creates a correspondingly exceptional range of woodland opportiuiity. 
To establish on the island, in connection with its now realized national park, a 
permanent exhibit of this forest growing nnder original conditions has been 
from the first a constant aim with those who songlit the park's creation. 

Snch an exhibit has extraordinary value. A forest is far more than the mere 
assemblage of its trees ; associated with them it contains, in regions of abundant 
moisture such as the Acadian, a related life, both plant and animal, of infinite 
variety and richness, whose home and sheltering habitat it makes. 

* * * * * * * 

The typical trees of the Acadian forest, those that give it its pecidiar character, 
are the northern evergreens, the cone-bearing pines and firs and spruces, the 
hendocks. and the ;irhor-vit;v. It is of these one tliinks in iiictnring to oneself 
the region. Maine itself is called the Pine Tree State; its eastei'u coast, "The 
Land of Pointed Firs."" Longfellow sets the Acadian scene for us in Evangeline 
with " This is the forest i)rimeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks," and 
far out to sea in early, long-voyaged days the approaching sailor welcomed with 
delight the pungent forest fragrance. 

But nungled with these evergreens which give the forest its prevailing 
character thei-e are abundant other trees that lend their beauty to the scene. 
Champlain describes the oaks growing as in a park upon one side of the 
Penobscot River, when he ascended it in 1604, with pine forest on the other. 
Deer and bears grow fat in autunui on the beechnuts in the- wilder woods. 
The two noblest l)irch trees in the world, the Canoe Birch, with its pure white 
trunk, and the Yellow Birch, which in the North outstrips the oak itself in 
size, find here their nath'e home. Ash and maple are abundant. Poplars, 
mingled with Pa])er Birches, turn into rivers of gold amongst the somber ever- 
greens in fall, and nowhere is the autunm coloring more brilliant or of richer 
contrast. 

Underneath the t.i Her trees, wherever an even i)artial break occurs, shrubs 
and lesser trees spring up in wide variety; thorns and wild jilum trees, beauti- 
ful in flower and fi-uit ; mountain ash and elder, with red. clustered bei-ries ; 
viburnums that would grace the finest ))leasiu'e ground ; dogwoods of northern 
species ; sumach, beautiful at every leafy season ; blueberries in the open, rocky 
places ; wild roses by the streams and roadsides ; blackberries with splendid 
liowering stems ; witch hazel with its str:inge autumnal bloom ; rhodora, spread- 
ing out great sheets of pink in spring upon the peaty marshlands, mingled with 
the fragrant labrador tea ; brilliant-l)erried ilexes, sold in the cities at Christ- 
mas time for holly ; and a host of others. 

No inch of ground, in sun or shade, is left unoccupied. The very rocks are 
lichen-clad and ferns mat over them in shady places. Trilliunis and wild 
orchids bloom in the forest depths, with white-flowered hobble-bushes; clin- 
tonias and the fragrant northern twin-flower that Linnaeus loved extend them- 
selves as in wild garden beds upon the woodland floor. 

Everywhere there is life, spreading mats of crowberry and the Iteautiful 
coast juniper where they are deluged by the ocean spray in winter storms; 
clothing wind-swept granite heights, wherever there is crack or cranny soil 
can gather in, witli partridge-berry, blueberry, and mountain cranberry ; pene- 
trating the forest shade and profiting by the dense northern covering of leafy 
hunuis that it finds there ; and rich, wherever nature has not been disturbetl. 
in infinite variety — of mosses, fungus growths and ferns as well as flowering 
liiants. Few forests in the world, indeed, outside the rainy tropics, clothe 
themselves with such abundant life, and theiv are none that bring one more 
directly info touch with nature, its wildness and its charm. 



Sieve uk Moxts and Yosemite. 

THE problem of OUK NATIONAL PARKS. 

By Stephen T. Mather, Director of the National Park Service. 

[Reprinted from The Outlook. Apr. 28, 1917.1 

The National Park Service now extends its activities across the continent 
from coast to coast, and the complaint so often heard in the East that National 
parks are chiefly beneficial for Western Americans no longer has force. The 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 35 

creation, by Presidential proclamation last sunnner. of the Sieur de Monts 
National Monument establishes the service not only in the Far East, but upon 
the Atlantic coast. Sieur de Monts has the fui-tlier distinction of being the 
tirst National playground reservation upon any seacoast. 

It is true that, technically, Sieur de Monts is not a National park, but a 

National monument. The distinction, however, will not be greatly apparent to 

the average citizen. Technically, the principal difference is that the park is 

created by act of Congre.ss and the mcmument by i)roclamatiou of the President. 

* * * * * :;: * 

As a fact, the distinction is not observed in practice; a reservation so 
great in area and scenic sublimity as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, for 
instance, still remains a National monument, while the Casa Grande Ruin, in 
Arizona, valuable only ethnologic-ally, is classed as a National park. Now 
that organization is at last established, however, a National policy will quickly 
crystallize. 

Siein- de Monts has the distinction of possessing both historic interest and 
very great natural l>eauty. It is situated on Mount Desert Island, Maine, 
within one mile of P>ar Harbor. It includes the ten mountains which ri.se 
directly back of that celebi-ated resoi't and apjiroach the boundaries of South- 
west Harbor. It contains in the hollows of its mountains several lakes of 
exquisite grace. Its rocky, sea-lashed shore alit)unds in majestic headlands. 
.several of them famed in the early history of Acadia, from who.se summits the 
climber gazes upon sea vistas of remai-kalile beauty. It incloses a tiord of 
loveliness. 

This exquisite reservation is rennirkable also for the diversity and beauty 
of its forests and its floral luxuriance. Automobile roads lead to its bound- 
aries, and footpaths i)enetrate its wilderness. Historical associations are 
commemorated in titles, and tablets make them known to the wanderer. But 
the visitor will not he bound by i-oads and paths. He will wander at will 
through the forest wilderness, lunch by brooksides. and climb the mountain 
summits. Sixty thousand people spend their sunnners in the many neighbor- 
hood resorts. These resorts make Sieur de ]\Ionts accessible and enjoyable 
to all. 

But this sea-girt sylvan paradise has still another distinction. So far. the 
acquisition of our National parks and monuments has cost the Nation nothing. 
****** * 

A few years ago William Kent, of San Francisco, imrchased one of the last 
remaining magnificent stands of tirst-growth redwoods and presented it to the 
Nation. The Muir Woods National Monument, just across the bay from San 
Franci.sco, will remain a perpetual monument to public spirit as well as to 
nature's luxuriance. 

Following Mr. Kent's in-ecedent, a gi'oup of patriotic New Bnglanders, led 
by George B. Dorr, of Boston and Biir Harbor, contributed their personal 
holdings and acquired others by purchase for the creation of the Sieur de 
Monts National Monument. Mr. Dorr made this the chief objective of a dozen 
years. It was all private property. Owners had to be discovered, approached, 
and persuaded to give or to sell. Funds had to be raised by private subscrip- 
tion. It required great patience, persistence, and labor. But at last, less than 
a year ago. the essential nucleus of .i,000 acres were acquired and presented 
to the Nation. 

But Mr. Dorr's work is not yet done. He has become the Government cus- 
todian of the reservation at a salary insufficient to pay a week's board in the 
humblest Bar Hai-bor hotel, and is putting his enei-ygy and resourceful influ- 
ence into the development of the area for the public use.' Sieur de Monts is 
destined to become one of the i-arest spots in Amei'ica, as it is already one 
of the most accessible. 

So much for our beginning in the far East ; Init what of the far West, 
where we have had National parks for many years? The Nation lies between 
Sieur de ^Monts, on the Atlantic coast, and Yosemite, on the summit of the 
Sierra Nevada. The fovmer represents the aspirations of our young service, 
the latter an experiment toward the building of a model for the future develop- 
ment of all our National parks. 

But none will develop exactly like the Yosemite, because every National 
park we possess is highly individualized. Each has its own separate condi- 
tions and presents its own problems. Each must be treated in development ac- 
cording to its personality. 



36 MOrXT DESERT XATIONAL PAEK. 

Extracts from an Article ox the Siei'r de Monts National Monument, 

PiTRLISHED IN THE .Toi'RNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL GARDEN ClT'B IsSUED 

December, 1917. 



The Sieur de Monts National Monument and the Wild (gardens of Acadia. 

The Sienr de Monts National Monument is tlie first National Park, other tlian 
military, to be established in the East. In its historic associations it is the 
oldest in the country, antedating by some years the landing of the Pilgrim 
Fathers on the Plymouth shore. It is also the only National Park bordering 
ujion the .sea and exhibiting the beauty and the grandeur of the ocean. To all 
of us wlio come from eastern stock, that frontage on the sea, that broad out- 
look on the North Atlantic, has peculiar interest. That sea it was which brought 
its founders to America, through danger and hardship, and gave their race the 
spirit of independence and adventure from which our Nation sprang. This 
park, also, rising from the ocean front, links itself as none other can, not 
])laced as if upon a harbored coast, with the Nation's greatest po.ssession, the 
navigable waters that border on its coast with the three-mile limit and which 
in Maine, whose coast line is formed by the flooding of an old land surface 
worn by streams, are fronted by 2,500 miles of picturesque and broken 
shore from Portland to St. Croix. These National waters of the ocean 
border, conunercial use apart, constitute the greatest public recreative area on 
the continent in the summer season, and the most democratic, for on them a 
man, if he so choose, can, single handed, sail his own boat from port to port 
along a many-harbored shore, anchoring where no private rights exist and 
<] rawing from the sea such food as money can not buy except along the coast. 
Between this recreative area with its boundless freedom and the National 
park system stands, sole link as yet, the Sieur de Monts National Monument, 
accessible by sea from every eastern port and fronting on it with a boldness 
and a beauty unapproached on our Atlantic Coast and rarely equalled in the 
world. 

The park's historic aspect is but one, however; another, to which special 
importance was given in the park's foundation, is that of the value it may 
be made to have in wild life conservation. In this the opportunity it offers is • 
extraordinary. The island's situation midway between sea and land, sharing 
in bt)tli climates ; the boldness and variety of its mountain landscape, broken 
by intervening lakes and meadows and deep wooded valleys ; and its position 
on a great coastal bird-migration route, with a widening continent beyond it 
to the north, combine to make it a wonderful place for sheltering, preserving, 
and exhibiting the native life — plant, bird, and animal — of the Acadian region, 
rich in species and reju'esenting the whole great eastern section of the conti- 
nent to the north of Portland. 

To cooperate with the (iovernment in this, a corporation has been formed 
entitled the Wild (Jardens of Acadia, to be governed, when its organization 
shall have been completed, by a small body of trustees appointed trienially by 
a few natural history museums and biological associations, by the American 
Institute of Architects, and certain others interested in landscape architectural 
and gardening education, and by the Secretarv of the Interior, head of the 
National Park System. 

The purpose of the Wild Gardens Corporation is to provide .sanctuaries for 
the plant and animal life — the flora and fauna — of the Acadian region, places 
of special fitness where that life in every valuable or interesting form may 
dwell securely and perpetuate itself in its natural environment; and to make 
those sanctuaries useful not only in conservation but as an opportunity for 
study, a source of pleasure, and a means of information. 

The Sieur de Monts National Monument is to be looked upon in this respect 
as its accomplishment, and nowhere in the world, perhaps, is there an area of 
like extent better fitted for such jturpose. It is the summer heat and winter 
cold in their extremes that limit northward and soilthward the di.stribution 
of plant and animal species, and both are profoundly influenced in the park by 
the surrounding ocean with its great sweeping tides. In it, accordingly, plants 
of the subarctic zone grow along with others living in the mountainous portions 
of Virginia and the Carolinas ; and coastal species with those of the interior. 

The park itself is a remarkable piece of topography. A once solid granite 
mass, some 15 miles in length, facing the sea, has been carvetl by the greatest 



MOUNT DESERT NATIONAL PARK. 37 

of all terrestrial erosive forces — ice and ocean — attacking it from opposite sides 
into a dozen mountain groups, separated by deep lakes and valleys and an 
ocean fiord. 

P^irm in its resistance as no sea-laid rock— limestone, slate, or sandstone — 
can be splitting into giant fragments piled like masonry and making wonderful 
foregrounds to the blue ocean plain l)eyon(l, it is an Alpine chain in small, 
while every frost-rent crack and crevice on it, bottomed with sand and humus 
from the slow weathering of tlie surface and the dropping leaves, becomes a 
miniature rock garden tilled with northern plants — blueberries and mountain 
cranberries, the tailing arbutus, mountain holly, and a host besides, while 
the bearberry with its shining foliage and brilliant, deep-red berries spreads 
out great carpets over the rock itself. 

At rlie mountains" northern foot, where the ice sheet's course was checked, 
and <iccupying the dividing valleys, through which it gi'ound its way with 
cducentrated force, theiv are deep basins, excavated glacial fashion from the 
rock. These are partly filled with water, making a series of lakes and moun- 
tain tarns ; partly with peat and washed-in glacial sands and clays, the fertile 
detritus from a sea-laid rock more ancient than the granite which is the bed- 
rock of the country. In them deep-seated springs well up. unfailing, clear 
and cold, keeping the basins full through sunnner droughts and creating ideal 
heaths and meadows for the growth of hog and meadow plants — the rhodora, 
the northern kalmias, Labrador tea, the native lilies in their different species, 
the native iris, meadow sweet and meadow rue, the brilliant cardinal flower, 
wild roses, and a number of wild orchids. 

The woods in the moniunent are exceedingly interesting including as they 
do what are now perhaps the only fragments of primeval forest — untouched 
but for the early loss of their great pine.s — along the eastern coast, plundered 
elsewhere for its ease of transport. There is no forest in the world that has 
a more delightful floor, rich in the underplants whose home is in its shade and 
wlidse soil is the leaf mould — the accumulaticm of centuries perhaps in the slow- 
wasting north — whicli carpets it. Here a different group of plants displays its 
beauty : The Clintonia. making great beds beneath the oaks and other hard- 
wood trees, with splendid leaves and the most beautiful blue berries in the 
world: the Twin llower beloved of Liniueus ; the Dwarf Cornel, co\ering 
sun-penetrated spaces with its white flowers and red, clustered berries; the 
Rattlesnake Plantain, quaintest of northern orchids, which forms delightful 
clumps of mottled foliage spread flat upon the ground; the Fringed Orchid and 
the Lady's Slippers; the Painted Trillium or Wake Robin, one of the most 
beautiful of woodland flowers ; the Twisted Stalk with its drooping, brick-red 
berries : the Winter-green and Partridge Berry ; the Ground Yew that haunts 
the forest depths ; the Ferns, the Mosses and the brilliant Fungi. 

In shrubs, too, Acadia and the park are rich. The blueberry grows so 
abundantly and fruits so freely on the mountains in the Park that the Gov- 
ernment has taken it for its emblem. The Wild Roses form great clumps 
along the roadsides and the banks of streams, flowering with a grace and 
beauty scarce any cultivated plant can equal. The blackberry throws out long, 
graceful stems of bloom. The Sumach takes on a habit of singular luxuriance 
in this northern land and is an object of delight from its first leafing in the 
spring until it drops its flaming, red and yellow foliage with the late autumn 
frosts. It is a home of the Viburnums, and the most beautiful species in the 
world — and the most diflicult to cultivate — V. lantanoides, grows in it in wild 
profusion, lighting in .Tune the shade of woodland valleys with its pure white 
bloom. At no time, from the blossoming of the Amelanchier or Wild Pear in 
spring, along with that of the first Wild Strawberries and Violets, to the 
strange October flowering of the Witch Hazel and the clustered fruiting of the 
native Rowan Tree or Mountain Ash, is there a period when flowers or brilliant 
fruits are lacking to make the wayside beautiful. Each period has its own 
beauty, too: the awakening of spring with its swift northern progress and 
rapidly succeeding blossoms ; the midsummer period of the Wild Roses' bloom ; 
the autumn beautv of the Goldenrods and Asters, of fruiting Thorns and 
brilliant Ilex berries and the Wild Rose hips. Nor is there any place upon 
the Continent where the autiunnal change of leaf is of richer color or more 
strikingly set off. The red clumps of Blueberry are glorious then upon the 
o-i'anite ledges, contrasted bv the gray rocks and mosses and the dark rich 
green of the Pitch Pine. The Oaks upon the rocky slopes below, turned to 
glowing crimson, are splendid against White Pines and Spruces. The Beech 
leaves' golden brown, the golden vellow of the Birch and Poplar; the warm- 



38 MOUNT DESERT XATIONAL PAEK. 

toned red of the Swamp Maple and nameless wealth of color in the heaths it 
I)orders make wonderful, illuminated foregrounds to the blue sea, the lakes or 
file inclosing bays as one looks down on them from the mountain paths. 

Viewed in this aspect, the park is like a great Rock Garden set by nature 
on the ocean verge and needing only to be made accessible by entrance roads 
and paths; to have its woodlands cared for and protected against disease or 
fire; to have such injury as men have done repaired, rank growths give place 
to finer ones, and every spot within its bounds of special interest or beauty 
given its full value. And to be made. i)esides, as nature has singularly fitted 
it to be. a safe refuge for the region's native life — plant or animal — as the 
human tide sweeiis over, preserving it in every finer form and handing it 
down — self perpetuated in its natural environment — to future generations for 
their delight and profit. 

friie needs are clear. I)ut the adaptation of a great coastal landscape to the 
annual refreshment of a multitude of men and women seeking happiness and 
health and energy — i)hysical and mental uplift— after the confinements and 
fatigues of city life is a matter calling for the best intelligence and skill that 
can be given it. Rightly done, the benefit — not only to those who come but 
to the work they do elsewhere and the communities they serve — multiplied by 
the years will be immeasurable ; wrongly done, a great opportunity will have 
been lost, perhaps forever. 

The area is unique; there is no other like it. The problem is to preserve in 
the midst of a great aimual flood of summer visitors the wild, primeval beauty 
and untamed, elemental character which make it so and combine with the cool 
sunnner climate and the presence of the sea to draw men to it. 



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